La mar: December Break

Alright so the my mom's camera wasn't working so I don't have pictures.

Thursday I wished Nick a buen viaje in Paris while I left for Amsterdam with some friends. Stepping off the RyanAir flight I felt an excitingly refreshing rush of cold air! The ground was blanketed in snow too. The first night we explored the city for a bit to get our bearings. We woke up the next morning and wandered over to the Van Gogh museum. They don't have Starry Night, but they have the largest collection of his works in the world. I enjoyed the visit. It was interesting to get close to the paintings and see the thick brush strokes on many of his works in person. It adds more feeling to it than just viewing the pictures online or whatever. The painting below is titled "Wheatfield with Crows" and was completed in 1890, the year of his death. Supposedly he sensed his coming death and was inspired to draw this:

That afternoon we ventured on over to the Heineken Factory for a tour that was actually excellently devised. It was my first brewery tour, and it was both informative and fun. Apparently Heineken has its own secret yeast strain that only five or so people in the world have access to the instructions how to create it. The yeast is what gives a beer its distinctive flavor, so I am told.

Here's a picture that captures how beautiful the city was (credits to Adam and Corey):

One of the many canals

So cool at night

Heineken Brewery Tour was a good experience!

That night we wandered the city including the Red Light District, a place like no other I have ever seen. Very excellent area to people watch.
The next morning we took a tour of the Anne Franke house. I had never read any of her journals, but knew the relative jist of the story. It was quite depressing to go through the attic in which she and her family spent so many months trying to evade the Nazis. Of course in the end they were discovered and taken to interment camps where she died of illness. Made me very sick to think about how cruel people can be to each other.

Gearing back to positive things, that Saturday night I had a 12:30AM bus to Weeze, Germany for a Ryanair flight to Milan. The van didnt exactly have heat. I woke up in the middle of the ride and briefly thought I had lost control and feeling of my right leg. I had to shake it around til the feeling of flowing blood came back. It was as if the arteries and veins of my right leg were slowly freezing into ice, so if felt. Anyways, made it to Weeze at 4AM and ate some gummy bears then passed out til the flight.

So I could go into detail about how the flight was delayed a couple of hours and how I missed the train from Milan to Lugano as I was sprinting to the platform, but I'll spare you that. Lugano was great fun! Lindsay and her friends welcomed us right off with a big ole family dinner! Yummy! We passed the days going to a chocolate factory, exploring, riding trains, climbing castles, etc. I even tried a yoga class and ate Indian food for the first time. Switzerland is very beautiful. Nick and Micaela and Lindsay have pictures. Heres one from Micaela:

Four of us

Finally on Wednesday it was off to mysterious Norway for me and Nick. We spent about 32 hours moving our bodies across the Earth. Train to bus to flight to overnight train to boat to hike to boat. Heres how it goes: As soon as we arrived in Oslo we discovered the true nature of Norwegian living. Its incredibly expensive! And it involves working in the Norwegian kroner currency. Food and lodging are expensive. Anyways. We took the overnight train from Oslo to the coastal city of Bergen. We arrived in darkness at 7AM, wandered the city and impulsively took a 10 hour roundtrip boat ride along/through the fjords of Norway. Quite the ride. Nicks got some good video and pics. We had a 3 hour layover in Selje, Norway (population 800?) and saw a hill and went for it. The view from the top of the hill was gorgeous. The sunlight reflecting of the water, snow, and clouds was impressive. As the sun never climbs to high in Norwegian winter it creates interesting lighting. After a boat ride back to Bergen through the dark we secured a hostel for the next three nights. Bergen is a very pretty city nestled on the coast with small mountains surrounding it. Hopefully Nicks got some pics. Tried to not let the city steal all our money. Beers at the bar were $9, cheapest. Base your CPI or whatever its called off that.
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Alright, so when I told the story (in pictures) of Mom and Kelly in Spain, I somehow neglected that Micaela graciously gave us a wonderful tour of Barcelona. Reverting to the idea of story by picture, here you go (thanks Micaela!):