Schiermonnikoog, Netherlands

Posted by Kimberly Palmer On Friday, April 30, 2010 0 comments


Last weekend, CIEE organized a trip to the lovely island of Schiermonnikoog in the north of the Netherlands. After a 3hr bus ride and a 45 minute boat ride, we arrived on the island Friday night and got our rented bikes and headed towards our hostel. Note: it wasn't just any hostel, the hostel was actually a farm that we had all to ourselves. We got an "American" style feast for dinner complete with cole slaw, spare ribs, potato salad and all the fixings. The Dutch did a decent job - the spare ribs were delicious. That night we just relaxed and played card games in our little attic room that we discovered.

Saturday morning we head to the water. During low tide, you can mudflat hike where the water retreats. We spent about 2hrs hiking - maybe more like sinking into the mud - and learning all about tons of wildlife, currents, etc. All in all, it was a pretty muddy morning being that we were halfway up to our shins in mud, yet fun. We had some free time after that so we took our bikes and went for a ride around the island and ended up at a little lake set within the woods. We had some balls and frisbees so we improved a few games, then headed back for dinner. Just in case I wasn't already amped off of the first night's dinner, it got better. We got a huge BBQ feast with chicken sate, kebabs, stuffed peppers, and steak. Unreal. After stuffing our faces yet again, we made our way down to the beach for a Dutch style bonfire. It was more like a dumpster fire cause the firepits were just steel boxes, but it was still a good time. After the bonfire, we decided it would be fun to hit the town. And by hitting the town in Schiermonnikoog, I mean going to one of the two bars. After the first one, we decided to go to their version of a "club" which was just janky music and designed like the "Smash Club" from Full House. It gets better. Inside, there was a wedding partying using the space as their post-party, a sorority on retreat dressed up in ridiculous costumes, guys from a stag party and us. Good times.

We took a guided bike tour on Sunday morning around the island. The same guide that showed us around the mudflats took us around the island to see the sea salt marshes, sand dunes, a German WW2 bunker, a lighthouse or two, and a seamen's cemetery. After the biking, we took advantage of our free time to soak in the sun a little bit more before we headed home. The island was really cool to explore and felt amazing to do something that doesn't involve a city, bus or metro. Schimonnikoog was actually voted one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands. Judge for yourself....

The island from the dike
Free tractor rides!
Mid-hike

Lookout by the bunker
Pathway down to the beach
Mudflat hiking!



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Paris, France

Posted by Kimberly Palmer On Friday, April 9, 2010 1 comments

I spent this past Easter weekend in the gorgeous city of Paris. It definitely lived up to it's name - "City of Lights". I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful city at night.

My friend Rachel and I took the bus from Amsterdam to Paris. Which will probably be the last time I ever take the bus. After 9hrs, some traffic and a horrible bus driver who kept getting stuck mid-turn - we finally made it into Paris Friday afternoon. After getting settled in our hostel, we headed out for some dinner and a drink. After a panini and a beer, we spent the night just strolling around the city. We saw Notre Dame, the Parthenon, the picturesque Seine river, and the always entertaining foreign McDonald's menu. It's funny how they try to incorporate each countries own food into the supersize menu or in France - "The Best Of."

Didn't really sleep too well that night considering there were 20 immature French teenage boys staying on all sides of our room. None of them understood English or the phrase "Please shut up, it's 2am and people want to sleep." As they went on with their running, jumping, and slamming of doors, we had to ask the hostel security to please explain to them the need to be respectful. This promptly caused us to ask if we could switch floors the next morning, without having to explain, the girl at the front desk goes "Oh, you're on the 2nd floor with the really bratty French kids?" Most definitely. Hello 6th floor and a decent night's sleep.

The next morning, we checked out the free tour that meet at the Saint Michel foundation. Us and 100 other people decided to show up as well. Since the group was so big (50 people per guide) we stuck around for a bit, then just went off on our own. We checked out the Louve, the surrounding gardens, a church I can't really remember name of and headed up Champs-Élysées to check out the L'Arc de Triomphe right as a storm set in. Once we got to the Arc, we took a few quick picks and headed straight to the metro. For dinner, we decided on a good sushi place. For 17 euro, we got a delicious spread of miso soup, salad, rice, rolls, sashimi, and a variety of meat skewers. We may have not spent a lot of money on the touristy stuff because of the Easter crowds, didn't really spend money on many drinks but we most definitely ate well while we were in Paris! After dinner, we headed to the Latin Quarter to explore the streets and our plan of making it to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower were quickly demolished when it started to pour. So we found a little bar, had a drink and tried to avoid the creepy winks of the bartender and the waiter telling us how wonderful it was that we were American. From there, we agreed it was safe to call it a night and head back.

We took advantage of the first Sunday of the month being free museum day and one tip we walked away with from the free tour. We went to the Louve at 9am, but not to the normal entrance where the line was already wrapping back through the courtyard. We learned that there is another entrance - Porte de Lions - where we were the second people in line to get in right at 9am. By 9:05, we were looking at the Mona Lisa... from about 15ft back. Over the next 4hrs, we made our best attempt to see almost all of Louve's exhibits. This was definitely a daunting task but we got a very wide range of all that the Louve holds within it's walls. My favorite wings were the Louis XIV apartments and the Egyptian artifacts. After our morning tour of the Louve, we headed towards the Eiffel Tower as the clouds began to part and blue skies started to show their face. We snapped some good pictures of the Eiffel Tower and laughed at all 5,000 people waiting in line to go to the top on our way to lunch. Rachel was on a mission to try some French delicacies. We found a streetside cafe and ordered some escargot and two salads. I've had escargot before so I was excited, maybe a little two excited. As I grabbed the shell to extract the snail, it went flying and hit Rachel in the chest. We had a good laugh about flying snails and she loved the escargot and wanted to order more. That night, we had dinner at restaurant where Rachel dived into the fixed price menu featuring duck mousse, some steak dish and flan for desert. I had chicken and cheese crepes, just enough to hit the spot. After dinner, we checked out a popular bar street/alley, Rue des Lombard, where we found a cool Jazz bar and a fun Irish bar. At the Irish bar, some French guy who now resides in Dublin decided it would be a great conversation starter to go off about the lack of cheese in Ireland and how much he loathes cheddar. Once again, we decided it was about time to head back home.

We spent out last day in Paris exploring the gardens. We started out at the Luxembourg Gardens (which were absolutely gorgeous and full of joggers) and made our way down to Plantes Garden which hosts the Paris Zoo. After seeing the kangaroos out in the open, we got excited that the zoo might be free. Negative. The line of strollers confirmed that we would have to pay to see the rest of the animals.

After another delayed 8hr bus ride back to Amsterdam, we were barely able to catch the last metro into the city central. I made it back to my place and crashed. Here are some to document my Parisian weekend :)


The Louve!
Luxembourg Gardens
Yummy (polished off) escargot
Eiffel Tower
Crepes with Nutella :)
Rachel and I not appreciating the smelly Paris metro


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Barcelona, Spain.

Posted by Kimberly Palmer On Tuesday, March 30, 2010 0 comments


Wow. So I just got back from an amazing weekend in Barcelona. I had to play some catch up for being gone and pump out two papers after getting back to Amsterdam Monday morning. Anywho. All school aside, I cannot wait to share how much fun I had in Barcelona. I could easily move their in a heartbeat.

I set out Friday morning from Amsterdam on a short, less than 2hr flight. I landed around noon to beautiful sunshine and immediately had to rid myself of my sweater and jacket because I was sweating. I'm pretty used to this routine when I fly home from Oregon to San Diego. The first impression I got from Spain was that it felt oddly enough home to me. I had a hard time trying to find the train to the city that I was looking for (because I later realized that I was in the wrong terminal), so I just settled for a bus. I started talking to a girl, Mia, from Sweden while we both new to Barcelona and trying to figure out if we were getting on the right bus as the bus driver lady is barking at us to keep moving. I started talking to her about Kara and my plans to backpack through Scandinavia in June and she was a great source to bounce ideas, cities, and plans off of. When we got to Plaza Catalunya, I had a few more hours to kill so I joined her and her Parisian friend, Paul, for tapas nearby. Paul again was a great resource both for finding out places to go and see in Barcelona and for my trip this weekend to Paris. Needless to say, I have little expectations for the French to be pleasant, some must-see sites and the knowledge that the Paris nightlife is a joke.

After I said goodbye to Mia and Paul, I grabbed a map and started wondering. Naturally I had to check out Las Ramblas to see what it was all about. Just as touristy as I imagined with some creative street performers. I made my way down to the harbor, took a bunch of pictures of everything around me to get it out of my system for a few hours. I loved how blue the ocean was, all the palm trees and Barcelona's love for bright, vibrant structures. My friends got into Barcelona around 5pm, so I met up with them at Plaza Catalunya and headed up to our place for the weekend.

Tommy, a kid I was traveling with, has a few friends studying in Barcelona and it worked out that they were on spring break. We lucked out and got to stay at their apartment kinda in the Gracia area. It was 3 guys' place, so it was necessarily the cleanest so I just kept reminding myself "free, free, free". One of Tommy's friend, Ben, was still in town so he played host and took us around. Friday night we got paella off of Las Ramblas and came back and napped. Yes, napped after dinner from 9 to 11pm. Then got ready and went out to Pippermint's, a popular place that has the biggest drink imaginable. The 5 of us spilt a 6L of rum and come. Needless to say, I did not need another drink that night. Even though we were pretty tired, we headed out to get a sense of Barcelona nightlife. We went to some cool clubs on the beach, Catwalk and Opium. It was pretty cool to be able to walk on the beach and go from one club to another. Without even realizing it, we were out until 5am. Even though the metro stops running at midnight Sunday-Friday, it's not uncommon for kids just to catch the first metro in the morning at 5am. At first I laughed, but after my first night in Barcelona. I understand now.

The next morning I woke up, still feeling the rum and coke, and was determined to not waste too much time in bed. So Courtney and I headed to see Gaudi's Segrada Familia. Easily one of the craziness churches I could have ever imagined. The line was around the corner, so we just walked around and took pictures. I'll go back when it's finally finished (whenever that is). That afternoon, once everyone got up (around 2:30pm), we went to the beach and relaxed with some beers. After being endless solicited to buy beer (when we already had a 12pk) and 5 euro massages (which is just creepy), we head back home with some color. Some dinner and another nap, we headed out for another crazy Barcelona night. We went to a popular music club, Razzmatazz, pay a cover with an included drink and had a good time exploring all like 30 rooms in the club. Not uncommon, we again caught the morning metro and got back at like 7am. Such an unreal experience for me cause I'm not really a night owl. But when in Barcelona...

The next morning was a struggle, not do to drinking but just to lack of sleep, but I was determined to see the city cause I was leaving soon. I took a trek up to Gaudi's Parc Guell and spent an hour or so walking around with my jaw dropped. The landscape and view was gorgeous. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, seeing more Gaudi architecture, historical buildings, and made my way down to the beach to meet up with my friends. We headed back home around 7pm and stopped for dinner on the way back. After an attempt to nap and rally up, we decided that we were all too sleep deprived to do anything. I turned in but couldn't really sleep cause I was much too nervous about getting to the aeropuerto on time. The metro doesn't start running until 5am and I was trying to catch a 5:25am train to the airport that would get me there around 6am and my flight started boarding at 6:15am with the gate closing at 6:35am. I probably only got an hour of sleep.

I got up the next morning at 4:30am, got all my stuff together and headed down to the closest metro I could take without having to take the time to transfer. Needless to say, I was about 98.34523% sure I was going to get mugged walking down the streets of Barcelona alone at o'dark hundred. I took everything valuable and hid it in my purse under my jacket and keep looking around every 30 seconds. Luckly, I had no problem and caught the first metro to Sants Espcio. From there I ran around trying to find the train, bought my ticket and sprinted to catch an earlier train that was leaving in a minute. That was the first thing that really saved. I got to T2 at like 5:40 and had to take a bus to the next terminal. Finally got into T1 at like 6 and sprinted, yet again, to the security only to find the great gift from the Spainards. Even though the airport was packed, the security was so well organized that I made it through in less than 5 mins. The only loss of the morning was my corkscrew which got confinscated. I made it to the gate with time to grab something to eat... I stressed so much over nada. I made it back to a much colder Amsterdam and got home with some time to take a little nap and head off to my 1pm class.

I had a wonderful weekend with beautiful weather, fun times with my friends and got to see a great city! Here are some pictures :










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Berlin, Germany

Posted by Kimberly Palmer On Wednesday, March 24, 2010 0 comments


Last weekend, I explored the wonderful city of Berlin. Me and four other girls took a 10hr night bus on Thursday night. For the price, it wasn't a bad option. Minus the obnoxious Dutch girls sitting behind us who proceeded to talk all and braid each other's hair through the entire night. The downside to having 99.9% of the Dutch population speak fluent English is that you can't talk about them without them knowing. So with a few hours of sleep under our belts, we got into Berlin at 8am and got started on the S-Baun to head to our hostel. The public transportation was amazing - cheap, efficient and very easy to use. We bought a 2-day pass and made it our best friend.

The first thing we decided to do was to check out the 3hr "free" walking tour. Best choice we could have made. There's an organization that hosts great free walking tours in most of the big metropolitan cities in Europe. The tour guides aren't paid, but depend on tips based on the quality of their tour. They mainly attract young student travelers (like us) so the guides gear the tour towards a younger crowd and it shows that they truly love what they do. We had an Irish guide named Finn who lead us through Berlin to see all the sights and told great little anecdotes. Over about 4hrs of walking, we saw everything - The Brendenberg gate, the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Hitler's bunker, some of the few still remaining Nazi buildings, a section of the still-standing Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and the ever popular big Europe cathedrals. I found it so interesting that 90% of Berlin was destroyed during WWII so most of what I was looking at was a complete reconstruction to look like the original. Amazing, cause I probably would have never been able to tell.

That night, we weren't too sure where to go out to. So after a few failed attempts, we found a big pub area and settled. As we were walking down the street, we noticed about 30 Scottish guys dressed up in Oompa Loompa costumes and a Willy Wonka walking into a bar. We obviously found this to be hilarious and asked them why they were dressed up so ridiculously. They were doing a "stag" party which I guess would be a UK-version of a bachelor party where it's common to pick a theme and go all out. All out as in a complete costume, orange faces, green wigs and white eyebrows. A "hen" party would be the same as bachelorette party. Needless to say, they provided us some free laughs because they were so ridiculous.

The next morning, we decided we'd spend the day in Oranienburg which is just outside Berlin to visit Sachsenhausen - one of the first concentration camps. Obviously, it wasn't the most fun day but it was really important to me to at least visit one camp to grasp an better understanding. Sachsenhausen was an all male concentration camp and mainly used for political prisoners in the mid 30s and later for all types of prisoners in the 40s. For me, it took an abstract event that I've read and learned about and made it very real through that experience. I'm really glad that we took the time to go out there.

On the second night, we decided to join a pub crawl put on by the same company that organized the free tour and the Sachsenhausen camp visit since we'd had such a great experience with them. For 12 euro, we definitely got a deal. Free beer, Jagermeister shots and entrance to a club which normally charges 10 euro at the door. Goedkoop!

To expedite the journey back on Sunday, my friend Lisa and I caught an early train back. 6hrs later and literally barrels of laughs about the weekend, we made it back to Amsterdam. I love coming "home", it's always so sunny and beautiful. As much as I love traveling right now, I absolutely love coming back to Amsterdam. I wouldn't have picked any other city to live and study in.

On Friday, I'm heading out to Barcelona for the weekend. So frickin' excited! It's supposed to be 65 and sunny, let's hope that stays true. Kara gave me a great list of places to see, eat and drink. Wish she was coming!


Berlin Wall
Brendenberg Gate
In front of Hitler's favorite Opera House
"Work will set you free" sign at Sachsenhaus
Memorial to all victims of the holocaust at the cremation building


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Brussels, Belgium.

Posted by Kimberly Palmer On Sunday, March 7, 2010 0 comments

I just got back from Brussels this afternoon. Brussels wasn't exactly what I expected, which was a good thing. I expected it to be very similar to Antwerp and I've heard it compared to Amsterdam. It was neither of those. To me, it reminded me of San Francisco. It was hilly, felt like a metropolitan city and had great views around each corner. We had some problems with navigation. For starters, the bus stop we needed to go to wasn't in service; so we spent the next 30 mins walking around the train station trying to find someone to talk to, but just ended up trekking it up the hill to the next stop along the line and hopped on the bus. Luckily, Laura knew some French was able to help facilitate the process of figuring out if we were getting on the right bus.

We reached the hostel, dropped our bags off and set out in search of food (and a beer). We ended up in a little sandwich place that served us some delicious paninis, Hoegaardens and dessert. From there, we wondered around the city. We stumbled upon a semi desolate park with some great statues, the royal palace, a Frida Kahlo exhibition, and a lot of cool stuff along the way. Later that night, after a much needed power nap, we ventured out to the city center to try to find food. Huge mistake. Naturally, the food was expensive, touristy, and no one could agree on anything. So we wound up at an Italian restaurant. Got myself some lasagna and beer. I was a happy camper. From there, we went in search of a famous bar - called the Delirium - but came back inconclusive after walking in circles. We had a drink at another recommended bar and headed back to the hostel for a night cap (raspberry flavored beer) and to get a good night's rest.

We got an early start on Saturday and hit up a local thrift market across town. There was everything imaginable there. It was basically Europe's garage sale. I got a cute little leather wallet to use for traveling and a small Delft saucer to put my jewelry on. We also stopped in a few beautiful churches along the way. Gorgeous buildings - inside and out. Brussels also had great street art. They are huge on 'comic walls' where cartoons will take over a side of a building and go to town. There's nothing I like better than some interesting street art.

We had to do the touristy thing and see the peeing boy fountain (much smaller than originally thought), the squatting girl (no joke), the pissing dog (little excessive), get a Belgian waffle (absolutely delicious), grab some postcards, check out the big central square (so much beautiful architecture all around, it was a bit overwhelming). For lunch, we decided to give in and check out the seafood in Brussels cause it's supposed to be good. We got a huge bucket of mussels, side of french fries and a beer for 10 euro. Lekker.

That night, we cooked dinner in the hostel kitchen - 80 cents per person for salad, pasta and bread - very efficient. We had located Delirium during the day so we headed out to see what this bar was all about. It was gigant, with rooms and rooms of tables, a few bars, and tons of people. As big as it was, it took a few laps to find a place to sit. We had 2,000 beers to choose from. I tried a South African mango beer and another beer I couldn't tell you the name to cause I got flustered ordering because the bartender was asking what year I wanted (not like it really mattered to me) but they literally had so many beers, some had two editions. Needless to say, it didn't disappoint.

The next morning, we all got up. Took one last trek through the city to the train station and said Au revoir to Brussels and headed back to good ole Amsterdam.




















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Urk and Groningen, Netherlands

Posted by Kimberly Palmer On 0 comments



Last weekend, CIEE organized a little day for us all. So we packed into what they call a "touring car", basically a charter bus, at 8am and headed up north. We drove for about an hour and stopped in a little fishing village called Urk, had some coffee and cake and got a great tour by a witty old guy. Urk, about 70 years ago, used to be an island. But in the 40s, they brought in the dikes, pumped out all the water, and now it's connected to the mainland. It's a really small village up on the highest point where all the streets are narrow and houses are inches apart. Ten bucks says they could touch their neighbors house from their kitchen. Our tour guide was awesome. Probably 70 or so, witty as hell, wrote a couple books and really enjoys his life in Urk. After we wrapped up our tour, we got back on the bus and keep trucking up north.

Our real destination was Groningen, which is the most northern city of Holland. It's also the hometown of Renee, one of our program directors, so she was excited to show everyone where she grew up. It's a big student city and actually kind of reminded me of a smaller, more friendly Amsterdam. We spent a few hours seeing the city on a canal cruise, strolling through a cool modern art museum, and rooming the markets. We got some Belgian french fries (which are hands down the best in the world) and a fresh stroopwafel (a traditional Dutch cookie which has two big wafers with carmel in the middle). We had a great dinner at one of Renee's favorite restaurants. I had some delicious pork sate and apple pie. They always give us so much food it's unreal. So we all got back on the bus at about 7:30pm, stuffed and happy, and headed the 2hrs back to Amsterdam.

And the best part about the day: it was all paid for by CIEE… love 'free' trips.

Urk
Best tour guide ever

a front yard, if you can call it that, in Urk
Street market in Groningen
Belgie frites
Martini Tower in Groningen




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Antwerp, Belgium

Posted by Kimberly Palmer On Thursday, February 25, 2010 0 comments


I've been a bit lazy about updating about my first trip outside of Amsterdam. Last weekend, my friend Courtney and I joined her boyfriend and a few of their friends from Utrecht on a trip to Antwerp, Belgium. We headed down Thursday night to check out Utrecht, which is a town about a 30min train ride south of A'dam. We went out to a few bars around town, which was substantially quieter than the city. It was refreshing.

The next morning we got up early. Courtney had forgotten her passport so she had to make a quick trip back to Amsterdam to grab it. Ironically, we never once got our passports checked. We head down to Antwerp on a 9am train, took about 2hrs to reach the city. We weren't really sure what to expect surfacing from the metro into the city center, but it was beautiful. It felt a Dutch and French town had a child - Antwerp. Their were the small, narrow streets leading in and out of big squares. The Belgian where huge on the outdoor setting. Too bad it wasn't too much warmer than the Netherlands. Probably still high-30s. We made our way to the hostel, which was conveniently joined with a bar on the first floor. I wouldn't say it was the cleanest, but it had alot of character and the staff was really nice. After we dropped our stuff off, we headed over to check out a huge 16th century cathedral which was the town's main focal point. It was beautiful inside and out. We grabbed some lunch at a nearby cafe and sampled a couple beers.

That night, we headed out to a cafe and began talking to the owner about what beers he might suggest we try. Needless to say, he was very helpful and we got some delicious (and strong, about 10/11/12%) blonde and brown beers. The rest of the group meet up with us at the cafe and joined in on the sampling. I was pretty tired, so I headed back to the hostel only to find that the bar was going off. Every weekend night, they feature live in-house music. It was pretty good Irish-folk music. I stayed for a bit, then headed up to our room and turned in for the night.

I awoke at like 6:30am with the biggest headache, thanks to the beer from the night before. With no water to drink anywhere around me, I headed downstairs to drink from the sink faucet as a last resort. As I got downstairs, I heard voices coming from the bar. I decided to peek in and see if I could score some water from them. I might have forgotten to mention that the people who ran the bar/hostel were full-blown Irish. So they were still up partying from the night before, sipping their Guinness. They hooked up with a couple glasses of water and tried offering me a pint of Guinness, but beer was the last thing I wanted. We had a nice conversation and I headed back up to bed to try to get a few more hours of sleep. I saw the owner later that afternoon, around 4ish and he greeted me with a 'good morning'. I don't know how the Irish do it.

The next morning we just set out walking in a different direction and came upon an absolutely gigantic art baroque museum featuring some of Antwerp's most famous painters - Peter Paul Rubens. The entrance was 1 euro with a great audio tour. We spent about 2hrs wondering around and probably didn't see everything. It was beautiful artwork - saw alot of baby Jesus. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around, near the river looking at old forts and churches. I hit up a walking street (huge shopping streets with no cars) and got a new purse and scarf for 20 euro. That evening, our goal was to get a good meal and after being heckled all day by the guys who stand out front of their restaurants and tell you how you need to come try their food - we did. We went to an Italian restaurant where I got a delicious plate of penne with meat sauce (my favorite). We took it pretty easy that night and went out to a low-key bar. The night concluded with a cone of the most delicious Belgian french fries. Perfecto.

The next morning, I decided to head back to Amsterdam to get started on the schoolwork I blew off to go to Antwerp. Courtney and Tyler were going to check out Brugge, Belgium so we all packed up and went to the train station. About 2.5hrs later, I was back to rainy, overcast Amsterdam. Antwerp was a good, augural trip. I'm heading back to Belgium in a few weeks to check out Brussels with some girls. Should definitely be a good time. For now, here are some pictures from my trip :)

















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