Basel 02/25 - 02/26

Following our grand adventure to Paris and Brussels, a little group of us headed to Basel for the weekend.  Located about two and a half hours from Nyon, Basel is right on the border with France and Germany.  Swiss German, the Rhine River runs through it and there is also the option to travel into the Black Forest.  We arrived on Saturday around 11am/noon-ish and headed to our hostel.  The Basel Backpacker Hostel was actually really cool - it was actually originally part of a warehouse area I believe but transformed into office space, a restaurant and the hostel.

It is attached to the back of this building (that sign isn't really there)

After checking into the hostel and receiving our free Basel travel cards, we headed out to explore a bit.  We traveled via tram to the main square of town - Marketplatz - where the town hall, market and all the shops were located.

TO BE CONTINUTED...

I suck

I am so unbelieveably behind in blogging and I apologize to those of you who have been living vicariously through me.  These next few posts may be a bit rushed and jumbled so I'm sorry but I've got to get through 4 trips that I took.  First of all, let's mention the fact that I am now officially done with classes!!! wooot - just have my ISP to write, which is very hard because we have no classes and this makes this feel kinda like I'm on vacation...
Here are the highlights of my last 2 weeks minus the trips I'm going to write about soon:
1) got freaked out that I had to switch my flight home because according to the people who run this program I couldn't stay in Switzerland/Schengen zone after the program ended - this was a lie, found out I could stay after traveling to Lausanne and visiting the Cantonal office
2) my residency permit got lost somewhere in the mail, but luckily received it today because my visa expires
3) it's been about 70 degrees for the last 2 weeks, which is wonderful

Anyway...now to write about my trips, enjoy :)

Paris 02/22 - 02/24

This was one of the busiest weeks I've ever had - it was wonderful to visit all of these famous cities, but it took a lot of energy to keep going.  We arrived in Paris after an hour and a half train ride from Brussels - the weather was beautiful and we were lucky enough to have a hotel right by the Eiffel Tower.  Check-in was only at 1pm, so we left our luggage in the hotel and walked to the Eiffel Tower.

Julia, Me and Katie

We're so glamorous

After checking-in a little after 1pm we had the entire afternoon to explore before our group dinner at 6pm.  We bought metro tickets and visited the area known as Montmartre - the highest point in the city and location of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica.  The church was beautiful and the view from the top of the hill was amazing - we were able to see the city of Paris spread out in front of us.  Also, there was a group of break-dancers performing by the church - the atmosphere was definitely something!

Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Panoramic view of the city

What actually ended up being great was that our visit to Sacré-Cœur Basilica was on Ash Wednesday, so there was a service going on.  We headed back to the hotel to make it back in time for our group dinner - real "French Cuisine."

My meal of steak & fries - they eat fries with everything!

I had some wonderful salad followed by steak & fries - topped off with an amazing Creme Brulee.  Our Academic Directors actually abandoned us at the end of the dinner - expecting us to find our own way back home (this apparently never gets old with them - they left us to find our own way back after the EU Commission in Brussels too).  Paris was beautiful at night with the lights of the Eiffel Tower and other buildings all lit up.

Eiffel Tower at night

Les Invalides (location of Napoleon's Tomb)

I was completely exhausted after the day of exploring and traveling on the train.  So, I called it a night - having to be up at about 7 the next morning.  We attended a series of presentations at OPEC along with a couple of other American university delegations in the morning.  It was highly interesting since we heard from both Swiss and American Delegates of OPEC.  A group of us headed back towards the Eiffel Tower area to find a place to eat lunch.  We came upon a restaurant that sold typical French cuisine like the night before but since the price was only about $12Euros or so we ended up having a substantial meal with a large entree and dessert.  The waiter really liked us - he told us to speak English with him so he could learn (however, he really didn't understand much of what we were saying), and before we left he gave us free espressos!  After lunch we went to a briefing and UNESCO - a rather dissappointing organization in my opinion, I didn't realize that they mainly dealt only with policy-making support and really didn't have many on-the-ground operations.






Anyway, after the UNESCO talk we ran home to change and then headed to the center of Paris to get some dinner and walk along the Avenue des Champs-Elysees.  Before we went to the Avenue, we walked around the city and saw some famous buildings and museums and grabbed dinner at a little restaurant by the Centre Pompidou (art museum).

Fountain by the Pompidou

Hotel de Ville

Centre Pompidou

We hopped on the metro to go to Avenue des Champs-Elysees.  It actually ended up being a short metro ride - the station we wanted to go to had some problem or something so we had to get out early and walk a long way.  It was interesting walking along the street and seeing all different shops (probably none of which I could afford going in).  There was a Mercedes store, a Haagen Daz club, Louis Vuitton as expected..just to name a few.

Arc de Triomphe

walking along the street

light show on the Eiffel Tower - every night at 10pm

original Louis Vuitton

famous Macaroon place

Torch for the Unknown soldier under the Arc

It was a long night and we were able to cover a lot of ground!  Of course we all visited the Macaroon place on our way back past it for a little treat.

The next morning I got up at 6:45 to do some quick sight seeing before heading home on the 3pm train.  It was a struggle but there was so much to see in the city!
The morning began with another visit to Sacré-Cœur Basilica since my friends Carolyn and Erika hadn't been able to get up there yet.  It was beautiful in the morning fog:

There are all these people from Africa that hang around by the bottom of the park in front of the church and try to tie bracelets on your wrist and then make you pay for them - Carolyn and I got stuck and had to pay them.  It was extremely sketchy and I really didn't want the bracelet - he told me he was from Kenya, "Obama's country" when I said I was from the US.  When we were finally able to run away, the three of us headed to the center of the city again to see Notre Dame, Sainte-Chapelle, and Shakespear and Co.  Oh, we also wanted to have Crepes since they do originate from France.

Inside Sainte-Chapelle - the church was built by the royal family (though Notre Dame did exist at the time) and it is famous for it's glass windows - they are beautiful to see when the morning sun is coming through

Notre Dame - right next to the Seine River

In front of Notre Dame

I have to say - it was amazing to see the famed Cathedral of Notre Dame.  It was amazing - the architecture was impressive and it was just so breathtaking, a structure that has stood in this spot since it was finished in 1345.
Right across from the Cathedral was a little English bookstore called "Shakespear and Co."  We ended our sight-seeing in Paris by going into this little bookstore - I bought 3 books haha!  It was so quaint and all the second-hand books were being sold for an excellent price.

The train back to Geneva left at 3pm, sadly we were unable to find any cheap Crepe places so I have yet to eat one since I've come to Europe.  It was just so unreal being in this famed "city of love" - I never would have imagined that I would be visiting the city at this point in my life.  If you asked me if I liked Paris or Brussels more, I really couldn't say - Paris had a lot of wonderful old architecture and monuments to see.  Brussels, on the other hand, was less crowded with tourists and had a more genuine feel to it.

Brussels: 02/29 - 02/22

Warning: these next few posts are going to be extremely long, and I apologize in advance for my horrible grammar
 
So I finally have enough energy and time to write up my posts for the past few weeks - it's funny how much energy French takes out of me.  To start one at a time - here's a recount of my adventures in Brussels:

On the 29th I began my Brussels journey at 9am, we took the high-speed rail from Geneva - which took us through Paris and then onto Brussels.  There was a short layover in Paris so we were able to go out of the station and have coffee at a little cafe - it was so exciting to be there for the first time!

First time in Paris - just switching trains for Brussels

We arrived in Brussels and had the entire evening to explore the city, so I headed out to explore the capital of Belgium with a group of friends.

Passed the Stock Exchange - it was right near our hotel

The first thing we did: search out the Mannekin Piss (aka Peeing Boy statue).

Mannekin Piss in all his glory

Mannekin Piss plus some lovely ladies

I'm not going to lie, Mannekin Piss was pretty disappointing because he looked a lot bigger in pictures and he was so tiny in person.  I think what's more impressive is his selection of clothing that is housed in the city museum - people can submit clothing they designed for him and he puts on a different outfit everyday...more to come about that!

Right by the Mannekin Piss was the famous Grand Place square:

Museum of the city

larger view of Grand Place

Hotel de Ville

By this time I was starving - luckily the whole group felt this way and we headed out of Grand Place with the goal of finding a restaurant with some authentic Belgian cuisine.  Luckily, this wasn't very difficult to find and I was able to order myself a meal of Mussels and Fries for only 14 Euros.

Katie & my Mussel shells pyramid

Mussels and Fries!

Of course I couldn't call it a night until I had dessert - a Belgian Waffle!

The next morning the entire program received two wake up calls at about 6:45 and 7am since we had to be at breakfast early.  Our program for the day was a series of briefings at the EU Commission and then the afternoon was free for us to conduct research for our cultural drop-off projects (my group's topic being European Integration).  At the Commission we heard talks about: Foreign Trade (in relation to the EU), European Neighborhood Policy and EU Energy Policy.  While all the speakers were interesting, I was more than ready to be done by 12:30 to explore more of this wonderful city.

Whole group at the EU Commission

EU Commission

The afternoon's adventures began with a visit to Grand Place again to check out the Beer and Chocolate Museums.  It turned out that the Chocolate Museum was closed on Mondays and the Beer Museum wasn't worth paying to enter - therefore, instead I went to Neuhaus Chocolatier and got some Belgian Chocolate.

Beer Museum

yumm!

 The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the city.  Starting down by the Grand Place, we walked up towards the Royal Palace - passing the Royal Library, many Museums and other beautiful buildings (one of which was Parliament - couldn't figure out which it was).

Gates in front of the Palace

Royal Palace

Royal Library (little out of order)

Front of the Royal Palace

After the walk we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner and find out what the plan was for the rest of the evening.  I ended up going to this little Kebab place - there are lots in Belgium - it was really good!  Our group was supposed to meet up with everyone else in a bar called "Delirium"  - apparently a lot of Americans frequent there - but we ended up getting a little lost so got waffles and then called it a night.
The next morning was also begun with two highly unnecessary wake-up calls.  Our official schedule only included lectures by a Professor about Belgian history and sub-state actors.  It was interesting to learn about the language divide between the Flemish and French in Belgium - Brussels being an extremely interesting case due to it's location in the Flemish part of the country but the majority of its inhabitants speaking French.  After a quick lunch of Kebab sandwiches (what can I say, the Kebab restaurants were great and cheap) we headed back to Grand Place to visit the Chocolate Museum, buy souvenirs and walk around the city more.

The group who went to the Chocolate Museum

Chocolate maker at the Museum, who showed us the tricks of the trade

After the Chocolate Museum, I ended up going to a souvenier shop and buying some small momentos to remember my trip to Brussels.  We then ended up walking back towards the palace - a group went to the Art Museum, but the rest of us caught the tram towards the outskirts of town to visit the Atomium.  Built for the 1958 World Fair in Brussels, it was quite a structure - and from the top we had an amazing view of the entire city (those pictures are on facebook if you have interest in seeing them).

Lights went on as we were leaving

Atomium!

facts about the Atomium

facts about the 1958 World Fair

I finally was able to find the Delirium Bar successfully this last night in Brussels - almost everyone from our group came it was a great end to our Brussels trip.

"Minority Shot" at the bar

The next morning we left for Paris at 10am, however before we left a group of us ran to seeing Mannekin Piss get dressed and grab Belgian Waffles for the last time.

Chris getting his last waffle

Village Elder dressing Mannekin Piss in his Lacrosse Outfit

Finally dressed!

This was truly an amazing city - I really enjoyed being able to go there and experience a bit of Belgian culture.