On the 15th of December, I said goodbye to Lyon. I would be going to Germany to see Vanessa! I finished packing up my room (it was so sad to see it all bare and my things all packed up) and managed to drag my two huge suitcases to the train station. Ciela met me there to see me off, and we both did quite a lot of crying (even though Ciela usually doesn't DO crying :) ) I continued to cry a little while I was on the train, and the people around me kept giving me weird looks. Once the first leg of the trip was complete and I had arrived in Paris, I realised that my next train was from a completely different station on the other side of the city, and I only had 45 minutes until I had to be on it! I rushed outside and managed to get a taxi (it wasn't a normal taxi. It was really fancy, so I think it was a town car service, but I had been in a rush so I took the first car I saw!) and arrived at the other station in about 35 minutes, just enough time to find my train and get settled. This next trip was pretty long, but after a while, I had arrived in Cologne, Germany!
Right when I stepped off the train, Vanessa was there to greet me with a mint hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts! We stored my luggage in the train station and then we headed out into the city. Right near the train station was a big Christmas market--much bigger and cooler looking than the one in Lyon! We got traditional German christmas drinks--hot chocolate with amaretto. They were so good! After that, we walked around the Christmas market some more and saw a huge Christmas tree. Then we went to a little outdoor bar where we tried some traditional Cologne beer. I'm not usually a beer person, but it was actually pretty good! Once we had hung out there for a little while, we walked for a while and came across the Rhine river. There was a bridge that we could see going across the river and Vanessa told me that it's like the bridge in Paris where people put a padlock on the side rails. She said there are even so many locks on the bridge that they have to remove some because it's weighing the bridge down too much. After that, it was time to head back to the train station to catch our train to Dinslaken, the town where Vanessa's family lives. Once we arrived in Dinslaken, her dad picked us up and took us back to their house. Once we had gotten all my stuff brought in, we had a little snack--some German pasta salad that had egg and apples in it! After that, we went up to bed and hung out for a little while before going to sleep.
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| the Dome in Cologne |
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| the Cologne Christmas market |
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| Christmas tree in Cologne |
The next day, we slept in and then went to a sports bar down the street to watch the Duisberg football match. At first, they were losing but after they scored three goals in a row, everyone in the bar was cheering with excitement! Football (aka soccer) is another thing I'll miss about Europe. I actually like to watch it unlike American football or baseball which I find kind of boring. When the match was over (Duisberg won 4-2), we went back to Vanessa's for a late lunch. We had some more of the leftover pasta salad from the night before and a type of German sausage that was pretty good! After finishing up our lunch, we went back to the train station to catch our train to Kleve where we would be spending the next few days. Kleve is a little town in the far western part of Germany right near the border with the Netherlands. It's where Vanessa goes to university and where she has a flat with some friends. I really liked her flat and her roommates were really nice! I had already met her best friend Nicole when they came to the US a couple summer ago, so it was good to see her again. For dinner, we went to a tapas restaurant in Kleve that was nearby. Some of Vanessa and Nicole's friends came with us too--some other Germans and a guy from Spain. The tapas restaurant was really good! I got a hot chocolate with amaretto (the one at the Christmas market had been so good, I had to get another!) and a mexican wrap with chicken, veggies, and guacamole. After hanging out at the restaurant for a while, we went back to Vanessa's where we watched
Sex and the City 2 and got to bed kind of early to get ready for our adventure the next day.
The next day, we had been originally planning to go back to Cologne, but since the weather was supposed to be bad and because the train from Kleve to Cologne would have taken a while, instead we decided to go to Nijmegen (pronounced like Niming) in the Netherlands! We took a bus and were there in about half an hour or 45 minutes. Nijmegen was such a cute little city and is the oldest city in Holland (more than 2000 years old!) As soon as we got there, we walked down the main street of the town and stopped at a little food stand to get some Dutch breakfast--chocolate-covered Belgian waffles, Dutch pastries, and churros! As we were walking around and eating, it started to rain, but the day was still fun! We walked around and saw all the Christmas decorations. We went into a few shops where I got some Dutch chocolates and Dutch cheese to take back to the US with me. We walked down to the Rhine river and all through the town. After a while, we stopped at a little cafe for some hot chocolate. We thought it was so cool that instead of bringing you hot chocolate pre-made, they brought you hot milk and let you pick whether you wanted dark, milk, or white chocolate and then you dropped in pieces of chocolate that melted in the milk. It was so chocolatey and so good! After that, we walked back to the bus stop and took the bus back to Kleve. Once we were back in Kleve, we went to the main shopping street and I helped Vanessa pick out some Christmas gifts to give people. Then we met up with a bunch of Vanessa's friends for dinner at a restaurant next to her apartment called Mama's pizza. It was a cool 50s-style diner. Me and Vanessa weren't super hungry, so we decided to split a salad with tuna, egg, cucumbers, and a yogurt dressing. It was delicious and by the time we finished eating it, I was kind of tempted to order a second one! After dinner, we went to her friends' apartment in the building next to hers to hang out for a while and then we went back to her place and watched some
Sex and the City.
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| Nijmegen |
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| Everyone in Holland rides bikes, and they were everywhere you looked! |
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| Nijmegen |
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| Nijmegen |
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| the cheese shop |
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| Nijmegen |
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| Nijmegen |
On day 4 of my German adventure, Vanessa had to go to class in the morning, so I went to class with Nicole who is an international business major. The class was in English, but since there was wifi in the school, I spent the class time online rather than paying attention to what the teacher was saying! After class was over, we went to the dining hall to meet Vanessa and get some lunch. The food was really good and really inexpensive! I got pasta with mushrooms and alfredo sauce, rice with vegetables, and chocolate mousse, all for under €3 ! After lunch, Vanessa, Nicole, and I went to the bus station to go to Oberhausen, the biggest mall in Germany. The bus was a little late, so by the time it got to the train station, we had just barely missed our train to the mall. The next one wasn't for an hour, so we did some shopping near the train station and then took the next train. The mall was huge and so cool with all of its Christmas decorations! We went into a bunch of stores and got some snacks in the food court and then went out into the big Christmas market outside. This Christmas market was really big like the one in Cologne. We went to one booth that had almonds that were cooked in all different things. There were Snickers flavoured ones, Kinder flavoured, amaretto, Bailey's, etc. We could try as many different kinds as we wanted before picking which one we wanted to buy. I got Nutella ones that were soo good! I also got some chocolate-covered strawberries that were to die for! After walking through the Christmas market for a while, it started to sprinkle a little, so we went into a restaurant for some hot chocolate. After that, we headed back to Kleve. We hung out with the friends next door for a while and then went back to Vanessa's where I watched some
Gossip Girl with Nicole and another one of their friends.
The next day was my last full day in Europe :( The next day I would be flying out of Düsseldorf, which is right near Dinslaken, so we went back to Vanessa's house there. Once we were back at her house, I got my suitcases all packed (and made sure they weren't overweight), and then had some lunch. Her dad had been trying out different recipes to see what he should make for Christmas dinner, and he had us try a soup with sausage, potatoes, and vegetables that was so good! Then we went with her dad and brother to Essen to go shopping. We drove on the autobahn to get there, but it wasn't scary or all that exciting like I had expected! It was just a normal highway and every once in a while someone would speed past you! Once we got to Essen, me and Vanessa separated from her dad and brother and went to Primark. I had been to Primark when I was in Lisbon and I had fallen in love with it! This Primark was huge and had four floors of clothes and accessories. I ended up getting 8 different things for only €22! I got a pair of flats, a skirt, a bracelet, eyeliner, three different scarves, and gloves that are all really nice. After we were done shopping in Primark, we met up with Vanessa's dad and brother again and went to Duisberg to go to dinner. We went to an Italian restaurant called Vapiano's where you go up to a counter and tell the chef exactly what you want and they cook it right in front of you. It was so cool! I got penne pasta with a mushroom sauce and Death By Chocolate cake for dessert. The food all tasted really fresh and it was really good! I wish we had Vapiano's in the US! After Vapiano's we went back to Vanessa's house and got to bed early because the next morning we had to get up bright and early at 5:30AM!
In the morning, we had left lots of time to get to the airport in case there was traffic, but luckily there wasn't any! We got to the airport really early, and once I was checked in and got my bags checked and paid for, I still had lots of time before I had to catch my flight. So, me, Vanessa, and her dad went to the McDonald's downstairs for some breakfast to spend a little more time together before I would be leaving. After we ate and we said our goodbyes, I went through security and bought my final UK
Cosmo magazine (I had gotten into the habit of buying them every time I travelled and had really become obsessed with the UK version of the magazine!) and went to my gate. The flight ended up being an hour late, but I had plenty of time to get to my next flight once I arrived in Dublin for a layover. I had been hoping to do some shopping in the Dublin airport gift shops, but I had to go through the US Customs before my next flight and didn't have enough time. In total, it took more than an hour and I had to go through customs and three different security checkpoints. It was a little insane! The flight was long but not too bad. They gave us good food, afternoon tea, and I was sitting next a really cute old British woman.
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| At the airport with Vanessa before going back to the USA |
I started feeling emotional when I got into Boston because I just didn't feel like I was ready to be back in the US yet! I was really sad to be leaving Europe since I don't know when I will be going back again, but it was good to see my family when I got to the airport. And even though I was so sad about leaving Europe, I know that I will be back there again soon. After living in Europe for three and a half months, I really feel like I'm a European at heart and really felt like I was at home there. I know for a fact that I will be living in London someday, but until then I will enjoy the time I have in the US :)
