poker face?

Mine is nonexistent. But I did get to practice a little Biddy Early's weekly Tuesday poker night. Basically, a local Irish pub has poker night and the winner of each table (of ~10) gets a free bottle of whiskey. I only went once, but ended up being third at my table... not bad for a newb, eh? There was definitely some beginner's luck involved there... I won a few hands right after I sat down and all the guys started calling me "rich lady." Maybe I would've won if Tommy wasn't there... Tommy is another RISE intern and won all three weeks that he went to poker night. And trust me, the whiskey was not wasted on him.

This is Tommy, proud owner of a Tallamore Dew. We actually snuck out of the bar because the guy who came in 2nd at the table and his friends wanted shots of the whiskey, and Tommy was not keen on the idea.


And us in the schlossplatz after poker night with the random German kids that we met. I think this was their last day of school so a ton of high school kids were out drinking.

Oops moments...

I had thought that my German was improving, and I was recognizing more words and phrases that are used commonly. But lately I've realized that a lot of this was me assuming that I knew what certain words meant when in actuality, I had no idea.

Schnell: I assumed this word meant slow, because it looks like snail. However, it actually means fast.

Ganz falsch: There's this comic that is in the bathroom at work, about using a plunger. I'll have to take a picture of it or something. Anyways, I thought that it was illustrating the sustainable way to use a plunger, but instead it was illustrating the correct and incorrect ways of using a plunger. I think i need to upload it for anybody to understand...

Richtung: Means direction. I'm not kidding, I thought it was an actual location until a week ago when I realized the meaning. God, I amaze myself sometimes.

observations

1. French-speaking = better food.
For example, food in Prague was pretty much the same as German food... potatoes and pork. And bread. The Netherlands had some nice seafood, but otherwise nothing too special. However, Belgium (which is half French-speaking) had the most delicious food.

2. French-speaking = romance & affection.
PDA is very uncommon in Germany. Even hand-holding, I feel! It's a rarity to see a couple making out in a public place (exceptions are clubs or festivals like loveparade... but the people making out there aren't even in a relationship). But the Belgians are definitely more affectionate and not afraid to display it! I can't really say if there was a normal amount of PDA relative to the U.S. and it just seemed like more because I've been in Germany for so long, or there is actually more there.

3. French-speaking = more diverse.
Ok, so I'm only going off of the 2 mostly French-speaking cities I've visited this summer, Geneva and Brussels. But going from Amsterdam, which is still a large city, to Brussels, there was a huge change in demographics. Same with going from Germany to Geneva.

belgium

Belgium was more than a pleasant surprise. I honestly had no expectations for Brussels before going, although I had heard that Bruges was supposed to be really beautiful. And indeed it was!

Maybe Bruges was everything that I expected the Netherlands to be, but even better. There were canals, swans, cutesy homes, windmills, even clogs.









And yes, Belgian beer is really really good. Didn't get to try as many flavors and varieties as I would've liked...



Diocesan Seminary in Bruges (we weren't supposed to be allowed in but the priest was nice enough to let us explore for a couple minutes).



The next day we were in Brussels, which the internet and other sources had called ugly, a concrete jungle, and other not so nice names. From what I saw, Brussels was none of the above. People were out at cafes, the architecture was nice, and the city was alive (not just with tourists!).

We were lucky enough to see the famous Flower Carpet, which is only there for 3 days, every other year.




Brussels' landmarks do not do it justice... the Atomium (for the 1958 World Fair), Manneken Pis (peeing boy), and other peeing statues.





With Brussels being 90% French-speaking, the cuisine was noticeably of higher quality.

First off, chocolate shops everywhere:



The escargot I had at a random flea market was delicious.



Being such an international city, Brussels was extremely diverse... the most famous areas are the Moroccan neighborhood, African neighborhood, Portuguese neighborhood. Here's a bakery in the Moroccan street:



And last, but certainly not least, the ubiquitous Belgian waffle

surfing in benelux

Couchsurfing, that is! Indeed, much to the surprise of my fellow RISE interns, I did couchsurf with my mom. The trick to making everything work (relatively) well was choosing hosts who were compatible with us... most surfers are young, like to party, etc. so I looked for hosts who said that they don't want surfers who stay up late and drink too much and stuff.

Actually, our first host was Selin, in Nurnberg. She was super chill, and we arrived pretty late to her flat. Selin is half Turkish, half German and works as a law consultant (or something), and is in her early/mid thirties. Oh, and she has a 19 year old boyfriend. Yes, it was a bit odd. My mom was convinced at first that he was her son! Of course neither of us really asked what their relationship was, and later when she was showing us around the flat she mentioned that one of the rooms was where "we sleep." Anyways, we hung out for awhile and later I watched part of a Lost episode with them (I believe the finale of season 4).

Sooo, our hosts in Amsterdam were Jan and Renske. They were nice enough to pick us up in their boat. We met in front of the Nemo museum, and we went around the canals before "parking" and then walking to their place. That night they took us to a local Indian restaurant, and the next night they took us to an Indonesian restaurant in town. Again, they were super chill and we had a great stay with them.






Next up: Brussels. We stayed the first night with Melson and Els (they're actually Dutch) who have a 3-month old daughter, Mia. They were really nice and had so many interests... Els is getting an herbologist license and is learning how to make cheese and has started a garden in their backyard. Her day job is teaching Dutch but I think she speaks like 5 languages. Melson has been looking into peak oil, and various childrearing and development techniques. They recently decided to stop taking flights, and their preferred method of travel is hitchhiking, which is pretty awesome. And it goes without saying that they always buy bio (which means organic), and they always buy used clothing.

They could only host us for 1 night because their parents were coming for the weekend, so the second night in Brussels we stayed with Claire, a 40-something woman who works for the European Council (Brussels is "Europe's capital" and most of the EU is located there). Claire was really nice as well, and she recently fell in love, with Africa! I love seeing her face light up when she talks about Africa, or when she was listening to the African songs.

czech it out!

(forgive the cheesy titles...)

I had built up Prague too much in my mind, because so many people have told me that Prague is their favorite city in Europe. It was still a beautiful city, and the old town has so many windy streets that it is impossible to get your bearings. Charles Bridge, the most famous site in Prague other than the castle, was so full of tourists that it took really long to cross. Also, I had heard that everything there was really really cheap, what with it being eastern Europe and all, but of course things were comparable to Germany in the touristy areas. But enough griping... my favorite part of the Czech Republic were the smaller towns that we saw, like Cesky Krumlov, Cesky Budejovice, and Plzen.

the Dancing House in the New Town in Prague


Cesky Krumlov is tiny and straight out of a fairy tale, with the castle, old town, and river. It was also very touristy, as in everyone inside the town was a tourist, but that wasn't enough to ruin it for me.







We stopped at Cesky Budejovice on the way back to Prague from Cesky Krumlov. This felt like the first real Czech city that I had visited. The streets seemed relatively empty, and the town square was really beautiful, with some cool sculptures. The Budweiser that we know in the U.S. actually takes (stole!) its name from a brewery here.

geneva\genf\geneve & bern

Went to switzerland last friday. So one of the other interns John didnt have a train pass for Switzerland, only his DB pass which goes to Basel (on the border of Germany and Switzerland), so even on the train he wasnt quite sure what he wanted to do. Eric and I kind of encouraged him to just come with us, because the distance from the border to Zurich wasnt that great, and then buy a ticket for Zurich to Geneva. He looked into several other options to get to Geneva, like going to Basel first and then Geneva, etc., but it didnt really work out. Emil did some crazy thing where other people can use the wireless from his phone, so Eric could get internet on his itouch and John could get internet on his laptop. The funny thing was that it worked only when the train was going slow enough, and even though the train was slower than an ICE the internet was still really really slow.

So after we crossed the Swiss border John decided to take an extended bathroom break. About 15 or 20 minutes later, the Swiss border control came to check passports. One looked at mine and Eric's passports (both U.S. passports) and another looked at Emil's, which is Canadian. This lasted for about 5 minutes, and they both used flashlights and magnifying glasses to make sure that the passports were real. I dont think I have ever had my passport checked so thoroughly, even by the U.S. border people. They also traded passports just to make sure, I guess. This entire time, I was rambling on to Eric about Inception and he was facing the bathroom where John was. The guy checking tickets knew that somebody had been in the bathroom for awhile, and was trying to get him out and stuff. Eric had texted John to tell him what was going on, but it was probably too late. So Eric told me to 'act natural,' which consisted of me rambling on some more about Inception (we had just seen it the night before), which was difficult because he had this really concerned look, and a few minutes later John came by to get his passport and pay his fine (about 100$ I think) and for his ticket (about $40). I guess the fine would have been less if he weren't hiding in the bathroom, which really really sucks. Looking back, we were all really dumb to not think about the border control coming, but it was just one of those things that you dont realize at the time and later you think 'Oh, duh.' John was actually a pretty good sport about it, he just decided that since he already broke the bank on this one, he would make the rest of the weekend at cheap as possible.

And that's what we did... we each withdrew 100CHF (1CHF or swiss frank = 1 USD) and that lasted us pretty well for the rest of the weekend. We ate at Coop, a grocery store, on Saturday afternoon and just bought like bread, lunch meat, and really delicious cheese. (The price for a pizza was like 20CHF, the price for a happy meal is 11CHF, the price for a döner kebab is 8-10CHF.) But we realized that we still ended up spending about 6-10 CHF, so for dinner we decided it was a better deal just to get döner kebab. In Bern, we picnicked with the stolen bread from the hostel and more cheese and lunch meat that we picked up. John ate pita bread with peanut butter for his lunch.

Saturday we had the CERN tour, which I sadly was still really tired for (despite the fact that we went to bed around 1:30am... the earliest Friday night ive had in Europe so far!). We didnt actually get to see the LHC, but saw various magnets and equipment that have been used.

Saturday afternoon we just walked around the city center of Geneva. The first impression I had of Geneva on Friday night was the life and diversity of the city. But Saturday I just felt like the city was really crowded and touristy, although of course the river was really beautiful.

Sunday was Bern, the underrated capital of Switzerland. Maybe because it was Sunday, or because it was Swiss National Day, or because Bern is just less touristy than Geneva, but there were definitely less people in Bern and it seemed more peaceful. We (finally!) got to do the free bike rentals, and rode to the botanical gardens and then along the river.

Enjoy the photos!

Inside CERN:



Geneva's most famous landmark, the jet d'eau (jet of water):


(temporary) free things do exist


Rhine and old town of Bern:


The scenery was just beautiful