Where's The Rest of It?

I had to go bathing suit shopping today due to some trips that are coming up. I will not mention where I am going in the attempt of keeping some sort of element of surprise.

This adventure was to say the least, a challenge. 

Before I go any further, men who are reading- you will not understand this post, women on the other hand will feel my pain.

So finding a decent bathing suit, for anyway, is a challenge in America, let alone a different country. Let me just say, Italy is a whole other form of difficulty. 

The tops are possible to find, yet difficult because they do not go above the size "tiny." I am convinced the different size labels are a scam because the suit itself never got any bigger.

The bottoms, or what I think were bottoms, made me laugh. Literally, Alex and I were in awe.

I am not sure if any of you are familiar with the term "long butt" so let me explain. 

It is when you where pants or bottoms (with the exception of some high-waisted shorts or dress pants) of some sort that give the illusion that the lower part of your back is part of your butt. It makes your butt look, vertical, if you will. I hate long butt.

ALL THE BOTTOMS ARE LONG BUTT BOTTOMS. 

If that is not bad enough, lets throw in a Brazilian cut- what. Again, I will explain.

The sides basically look cut out like this:

 )  ( 

I mean this is clearly an exaggeration but I think you get the idea.

this does not work for me. 

More power to the people who can rock this, however, I, nor the majority of the people I know, can actually wear the majority of things cut like that. 

Now the combination of long butt and Brazilian style just looked so challenging and absurd that I found it quite humorous. Please, just try and picture it. I did not even attempt to try them on, because I knew how that was going to turn out.

I really wonder if it is just Italy that has their bathing suits like this, because everyone here is built the same. They all have skinny legs and zero butt. The guys, the girls, it doesn't matter. It is the oddest thing- I do not get it and I am not even going to try.

So in conclusion, I will buy a top that somewhat fits and wear some sort of cloth shorts thing. Not really my ideal look in Europe, however, I refuse to pay for the long butt look, so this is about as good as it is going to get.

Ciao!

Spring Break Part 3: Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM. The land of the friendly. 

Before I begin my favorite part of my trip I would like to just say that Amsterdam is one of the most amazing places I have ever been. It is gorgeous, the food is good, and the people are so so so extremely nice there. They all speak english and half of them are British. 

Misconceptions: not everyone is high. This is not why they are so friendly. 

Okay so now that that is cleared up.. I will admit to you that I lived in a van for three days. =X
Yes, a van, and yes, I know it is crazy and totally out of my element but hey, it's Amsterdam- crazy things happen there.
When I booked it, I did not take into account that the weather there is very similar to Michigan. Meaning it is 20 degrees, snowy, and windy. That went REALLY WELL with the 20 minutes rule on the heater. But it was fine.

Here check out the post for the van: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/582300

Caitlin and the van. I did not get a picture with the van which I am sad about but it is okay.

So let me start from the beginning before I get ahead of myself. Caitlin and I left Barcelona in the middle of the night and got to Amsterdam by the morning. We ran on no sleep that day and just went out and about. We fell in love immediately. We found the van okay- we had a chuckle and went through the "is this really our lives?" moment.
The host was such a nice and ATTRACTIVE person. He lived in the apartment right next to the van with his girlfriend and their new kitten. Michiel was more than accommodating. He invited us in for a coffee and labeled a map with all the best places to go and how to get there.
The entire time he was taking to me I was playing with Flip- the Siamese kitten. I was kind of banking on Caitlin retaining most of the information, which she did not because she was in awe of his ocean blue eyes and charming smile. We are a great team.

This just in during mid-post, Michiel gave US a review. It reads the following: 

Hayley and Katy are so open and outgoing that it doesn't surprise me that they stole so many hearts in Amsterdam. They got themselves in cool adventures all the time, from free beers at the Heineken brewery after opening hours to a sudden invitation to a big concert. But not only that, they even had enough energy to soak up Amsterdam's culture, confronting me that it's indeed a shame that I never went to the Anne Frank museum myself..i will! O, and yes, good that you wrote about the MagPie, the bar around the corner, a very good tip for everyone. Shine on in Florence!

LOVE HIM. If that does not show how nice people are ALL THE TIME, then I don't know how else to explain.

After we got situated we head out on the town to grab some much needed food and coffee. Then we made out way to the I AM AMSTERDAM sign. I was annoyed with the sign. There were small children climbing on it and everyone attacking all the good letters that I wanted a picture with.

Caitlin really wanted one of just her and the sign, can anyone spot her? Take your time.

(I would have taken more but my camera kept dying due to the cold)

From here we made it to the Heineken Experience Museum. LOVED THIS. We were there for 5 hours. Literally. Everyone who works there is so much fun. We learned about the production of beer, how to drink it, and a virtual ride where we were beer. Then we got two free beers! Caitlin and I actually got about 5 free beers because we made friends with the bartenders. We were really intrigued by the device that washes the glasses and we wanted to give it a go- so we worked for beer technically.
During this time we met an Israeli couple who were more or less hippies and they were adorable. We shared a beer with them and toasted to life- Lachiam!
We had to leave when the bar closed down, so we stumbled into the gift shop and bought many many things. We got shirts and mugs. Caitlin and I are allll about the Heineken experience.

running on NO sleep and dealing with windy conditions. I look  fabulous.

The horses of Heineken! They get vacations just like every other employee.

We had had a very long day and decided it would be best to call it a night and go back to the van, listen to some Jimmi Hendrix and go to sleep. On the way, however, we stopped at the best family owned food place that Michiel told us about. We got to fill up a box of food for 6 euro of homemade food prepared by this cute little Turkish lady. Her son spoke english so he explained what everything was. She gave us tiramasu for free and let me just tell you- it was better than any I have had in Italy thus far. It was a good end to the night.
(Caitlin is the girl in the last M by the way)

The next day we woke up, not knowing what time it was seeing that we were basically living off the land and could not use communication devices outside of Italy. All we knew was that we were cold and hungry- so we went to what is now my favorite place in the world- The Magpie.
This small pub owned by a lady from northern England was the deciding factor that, yes I loved Amsterdam and the people who lived there, and I could possibly live there at some point in my life.

The owner greeted us with open arms. She not only let us charge our cameras and ipods, but provided different adapters for multiple outlets! All of the regulars who came in she hugged and called them "my love." She was one of the warmest and most genuine people I have ever met in my life. The best part was her cat and dog hungout there! The little Yorkie and orange feline loved Caitlin and I.

he napped on my coat

We sat there for over an hour drinking coffee, tea, and eating krokets. LOVE KROKETS. They are meat and potato friend in either a ball or hot dog shape. People eat them with bread like a sandwich or alone as an appetizer, usually with mustard. We asked her what tram to take to get to the Anne Frank House and literally three people jumped up and showed us the best way and explained other places in the area that were good. In Italy they would probably point and say "here."

Off we went to see Anne Frank's house. There was a slight distraction from a street performer when we reached the city center, however. We thought it would be fun to stop and watch a street show. wrong. This guy was really weird. He started off by having a fire torch and whip. 45 minutes later he did nothing with those two things, and instead spent his hour long show only insulting the crowd, (he actually scared off a school group, and I am pretty sure that was intentional), talking about how hard he works, and doing all of two tricks. Caitlin and I stayed for the sole reason that we did not want to get called out if we walked away from him- he had a pretty big crowd and I think half were afraid of him. His biggest trick was breaking out of chains and a straight jacket. Before he did this- he asked for money, which was a 10 minute speech. I mean the guy was kind of funny and I could not tell if he was really an asshole or if that was a part of his show. Either way I gave him 2 euro because I was kind of scared.
I was happy to find out he was Canadian- so my theory on the high level of kindness from Amsterdam people still stands.

Finally- Anne Frank. I tried soaking this experience up, but it was just so surreal that I stood in the same room she hid out in for 2 years. The walls where she put her posters and celebrity pictures were still intact as if she just put it up yesterday. It gave me the chills. We were able to read and see pages from her actual diaries and short stories. There were videos from her old classmates, her friend from the concentration camp who tried helping her, and from her father. I think the one from her father touched me the most- he is the one who pushed for her voice and her dream to be lived out when she was gone. It was worth all the money in the world.

That night we explored some more, went to the shopping district, and ended the night with a nice cold.. HEINEKEN of course. When shopping we went into a store solely stocked with dutch cheeses, crackers, jams, and cookies. The best part: endless free samples. We chummed it up with one of the workers when we began to rave about these little heavenly cookies called strooplewaffles. We come to find out he is traveling to Florence in the summer, so we told him all the good places to go, and he told us where to get the freshest strooplewaffles. My love for Amsterdam builds even greater.

my fresh giant strooplewaffle. that is syrup in the middle.

The third day had its ups and downs. We started off with a much needed shower. Michiel let us use his apartment and trusted us so much that he left for work (he is a train conductor) and told us to close the doors when we were done. WHAT IS THIS COUNTRY. I got to play with flip a bit longer so I was happy about that. From there we went to Magpie of course and shared a lovely morning with our favorite person whom I never found out her name, but she is great.
 This day was the coldest since we had been there. The wind hurt and it was miserable. Our goal was to go to the hemp museum. After several distractions, we made it there only to find out it was NOT the hemp museum. It was the Van Gogh Museum. Don't ask- I have no idea how that happened. That was the first low, accompanied with the fact we could not find the second hand flea market for over an hour and when we did it was closing.
Exhausted and cold, we took the metro to the Red Light District. This is just something that needs to be done when in Amsterdam. It was not night time yet so it wasn't crazy and half the things were not open but it was kind of cool to see that such things are so openly advertised and accepted. We did not spend much time there seeing that the only thing to really do is walk around, well for us anyway.
We were starving so we headed toward the metro to take us to a pub called Dan Murphy's which a nice man from The Magpie told us to go to and that he hangs out there. The metro was not working. womp womp womp. Another low. It took FOREVER to get there. Once we arrived, however, our night changed drastically...

The big high point in the day:
We were introduced to a lady named Yvonne, her friend Perry, and another man whose name I cannot remember. They were all British middle age rockers they were hilarious.Yvonne had red pants with stars on them, and she rocked them to the fullest. Apparently, her boyfriend is the guitarist from a band called British Lions. His name is Graham and he used to be in a band called the Outfield.
I am not sure if you know the band, I did not, but they sing the song "Lose Your Love Tonight"- which is an awesome song.
 Another member of the British Lions is Steve Harris, guitarist from the band Iron Maiden. Which is a band I believe most of you will know, if not, please take the time to listen to a song or two in order to make this story even more epic than it already is...
 Well this band happened to be playing in Amsterdam that night and Graham happened to have two extra tickets that Yvonne coaxed him into giving to us for a FREE entry. Caitlin and I could not believe this was happening. These British folk took us under their wing during the show, we were right up front by the stage, and they bought us beer- it was great. More than great, it was somewhat unbelievable. The show was INTENSE, there were hardcore fans and rockers there.- I did not know any of the songs, but I wanted to because I actually really liked them. The whole audience had band t shirts, tattoos, piercings, and their game face on. I felt very "uncool" with my big sweater, scarf, and cheesy grin on my face the entire time. Caitlin and I stuck out like sore thumbs but we didn't care, we had the time of our lives.
Those were great people and I will never forget them or that night for as long as I live.

Us and Graham

Perry, Yvonne, Me and Caitlin

Steve Harris

After the show me and Caitlin had a moment of "is this really our lives, did that just happen, and who are we?" then we thanked them many times, and went on our way to do the appropriate bar hopping us 20 something-ers have a tendency to do.

The next morning and throughout the day was horrible. Everything that could have gone wrong seemed to happen. I do not want to bring down this post after the happy story I just told, but let me just say: We never got a picture with the lady of Magpie, never got a picture with us in the van, and I ended up getting to Florence around 2:00 AM and walked 2 miles home in the rain, finally arriving out of breathe and looking/smelling like wet dog. To say the least I was happy to be in my own bed and reunited with Alex. 

Spring Break Part 2: Barcelona

The next day, we met up with Tiara, Annie, and Caitlin's best friend who studies in Barcelona: Natalie. 

It was really good to see them together because I feel like it let me know Caitlin a little better. 

The first thing we did was go out to eat. I was excited to eat some authentic Spanish food! The sangria was to die for. It was also extremely strong. I kind of had to chug water during lunch because I felt like I took about three shots. I am pretty sure I wasn't the only one though. 

After that we went to Starbucks. I know that is super random and very American of me, but I had to do it. I hadn't been able to have it in months. 

From there Natalie showed us around. We took the metro to the beach. The metro reminded me of the one in Washington D.C.- just more trams and much bigger. The set up was somewhat the same though. 

The beach was very pretty. I hadn't seen one in so long, it was weird to be by a tropical like beach on the coast of Spain all of a sudden. It was also weird because it looked like an average beach to me. Not necessarily on the Stoney Beach level, but it was a very small coast, and felt a bit like Lake St. Clair. =X

Alex Caitlin Annie and I

Seeing that it was St. Patricks Day- we all stopped at an Irish Pub to drink some Guinness and get awesome leprechaun hats which I preceded to rock the rest of the day. 

From that point we went back to the hostel to get ready for the night. The walls in our hostel were covered in weird cartoon characters that were entirely too entertaining for us. 

  

That night we went to my first ever European football game! (Lisa Harris when I got the tickets I thought about how much you would love this). Yes we went to see the FCBarcelona Team! It was very exciting. It was a lot different than I thought it would be too. The fans are very serious during the game. They are sitting the entire time and very quite unless something good or bad happens. It is definitely not like the American sporting events. Beer was not needed- which was a new concept for me. 

The game was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am so happy I got to do that with my friends. 

After we got back to the hostel, we had a beer at the bar which was having a celebration, but we were all so tired so we went to bed a bit early that night. 

The next day was my favorite day in Barcelona. 

We walked everywhere! I am not sure if you can tell, but to me Barcelona was a very modern city. I didn't really feel like I was in Spain until we went up to the skyline and I saw it from above the city. It was so warm and sunny thought- I loved the weather and it was such a nice change. 

for lunch we actually went to a Greek place. I figured I was not going to make it out there this semester so I was pretty happy about this decision. I got a little wild and had grape leaves for the first time. They were INCREDIBLE. Love them. I also got saginaki- something that none of my friends had heard of? I was excited for them to see the cheese aflame and the "OPA!" presentation. I am sad to say that there was none of that. Not even a little flame. I just got a large block of cheese. It was less than thrilling, yet still good. 

Later on we went to see the Sagrada Familia. This is a church that they have been trying to build for 100 years now and it will not be done until 2018. It was nuts! It looked like a sculpture made out of melted candle wax. I can only imagine what it will look like when it is done. 

The main architect in Barcelona was named Gaudi. He is known for this church, Park Guell, and mosaics. His creations are so obscure and loud. I love how different they are from everything else. I asked a few people, and I am still unsure of the answer, but I wonder if that is where the term "gaudi" is derived from. It would make sense seeing what his designs look like.

The Park Guell was my favorite hands down. We climbed to the top and saw the whole skyline.

 I was on top of the world. 

I could not take enough pictures of this. It was insanely windy up there- Annie and I had to hold onto each other for dear life so we didn't fall off the cliff.

Please note the man who looks like Billy the Exterminator. He was up at the highest point just playing his awful music and growing at people. It was the weirdest most disturbing thing I have seen in a while. It was hilarious at the same time. 

After the long hike back down the park, we got to head to the oldest part of Barcelona. This was the Gothic part and it was my favorite. There was good food, good shopping, and best of all, good chocolate!

GARGOYLES

We spent the majority of our night here. We got to go to a chocolate museum which was really cool to see. The ticket was literally a dark chocolate bar. I felt like I was Charlie from Willie Wonka and I had found the golden ticket. Mine was gone by the time we got to the first exhibit. =]

For dinner that night we ate Paella which is spanish rice with different things. mine had shrimp, scallops, mussels and this new thing called conc.

 Conc: the inside creature living in those spiral shells you put up to your ear to hear the ocean. 

First of all, I had NO IDEA something lived in that other than the occasional fish or something. Secondly, I find the word hilarious. Thirdly, if you are wondering what it looks like, it resembles the shell it lived in exactly. It basically looks like that shell but in soft edible form. 

mind.blown.

Anyway, it was amazing - I am the only one it did not make sick so I think I am the only one who would eat it again.

That night we went attempted to go to a club. Barcelona is so big that we had to take a taxi there only to find out there was a 15 euro cover. So we went to another club which was 20 euros. THEN we went to a third one on the beach which was free, yet had expensive drinks, creepy men and awful music. Somehow we still had fun. It was interesting to say the least.

The next day it was just me and Caitlin as Annie, Tiara, and Alex went jet sailing to Paris. 

They had a fabulous time saw fabulous scenes and ate fabulous food. It was also ridiculously expensive.

Caitlin and I stayed and did our shopping. We explored a little more then headed out for the second half of our adventures to the location of...