Day 144: Final Thoughts and Hard Goodbyes

Tuesday, June 8, 2010: Tilburg, Netherlands

Its been a long time since I have last blogged about my time here in Tilburg (as I am still attempting to catch up on all my travel blogging!), but I thought I would share my remaining thoughts with you during my last stretch of time here. I promise to fnish blogging the rest of my experiences when I get back and things settle down.

The past few days have been great! I have gone with my best friends here to explore the last few places in the Netherlands we really wanted to go before heading home. Sunday we went to Delft and the beach, Scheveningan, and yesterday we rode bikes at Kinderdijk and wandered around Utrecht. Mateja and I have been bumming around Verbs 90 and staying with our friends Bali (Singapore) and Arlette (Netherlands) for the remaining nights we have here. We have been having an absolute BLAST! Everyone is done with exams, so we have been goofing off doing arts and crafts, shopping, henna and cooking for one another. Its hard to believe that I will not see these people that mean so much to me after tomorrow morning for quite some time...

All this to say, my time at Tilburg has been absolutely incredible. I always think alot before I do anything. I thought alot about study abroad and what it would hold. However, I could not nearly anticipate the amaing journey I have had here. The past five months are all now a blur of crazy, fun and unforgettable memories.

My time here has seeped through my hands like sand. While I wish I could flip the hourglass over and relive all the memories, I know I must move on to the next phase of my life. The next year has a lot in store for me: new jobs/internships, graduation, graduate school... I can't fully anticipate what may happen in the coming year, but I feel as though my time in Europe has helped prepare me for what is ahead. I have truly grown as a person here. I have more respect and understanding for international cultures and traditions. I have a new found curiosity for seeing and experiencing places and things. I am far more open-minded and willing to take more risks. I am more loving, caring, sharing and humble. My time here has taught me one very valuable lesson that sticks out above all- to learn from others as much as you can....there is so much to learn!

I have a few regrets from my time here, but mostly memories I never want to forget. I cannot capture fully in words my experiences here. Definitely life changing. I think I am coming out of this a more confident, well-rounded and knowledgeable person. I have learned to love each moment of life for what it is and soak in all the people and places around me. I have seen how fast time can go, and learned to treasure every moment.

The lessons I have learned here are indispensable, memories unforgettable, and friends forever. I thank my parents for supporting me on this journey, my friends back home for encouragement, friends here for all the good times, and God for safety and provisions.

There are definitely some things I will miss about the Netherlands (besides all the great people!). Here are just a few:

Stroopwafels

Euros

the Dutch Language

Albert Heijn

Traveling

Cycling

the LG

Public Transportation

Cappuccino pick-me ups

Coffee at 90

Late nites out

Talking with the girls

These are just a few of my treaured memories here. There are so many things I will miss about Tilburg. I have really enjoyed every aspect of my life here.

I can't wait to return to these places someday, when both they and I have changed. How fun it will be to come back to the Netherlands and visit Tilburg again. How great it will be to reunite with my friends from here one day in the future! These things I must keep in mind as I embrace my last few hours here and try and hold back the tears that I know will be flowing tomorrow morning.

Day 98-100: Weekend with Bali's Dutch Family friends

Friday, April 23, 2010: Utrecht

 This weekend, I decided to keep it local and stay in the Netherlands. Bali and I both had the weekend free from studies and other bothers, so we had planned on heading up north to Keukenhof, Kinderdijk and Utrecht for a short escapade of some of Holland's highlights. We had been invited to stay with her Dutch family friends that live in the small town of Culemborg while we traveled a bit up north so that we would not have to spend each morning taking the train a different route.

So late Friday afternoon, we moseyed down to Tilburg West and caught the train bound for Utrecht. It was a familiar ride for Bali, who had been several times before to stay with her Dutch family. We chatted and enjoyed the sunny view from the windows of the train as we anxiously awaited our arrival at Utrecht Centraal, where we had planned to alight the train and head into Utrecht to explore for the afternoon, and meet up with her Dutch family in the town for dinner that evening. However, the Dutch railways had other plans for our day.

The train pulled into the Geldermalsen station and a few people around us got off. We waited patiently for the train to up again and go. Bali explained to me that it always seemed to her that the train stopped at this particular station for longer than the others, so we did not find it at all odd that we sat there for a bit. After what seemed like quite a wait, we heard a woman speaking in Dutch saying something that appeared to be important. She looked at us and said (in English) that everyone needed to get off the train at this station. Confused, we got off and searched for someone with more information. We headed inside the small station and spoke to a worker who told us that the power was out on the lines between here and Utrecht, so there were currently no trains running in that direction. A little irritated, we called up Bali's Dutch Auntie and asked her if it would be too big a hassle to come and pick us up from the station, as it was only one down from the Culemborg station. She was a doll and kindly told us that she was on her way to get us.

We waited outside looking for her car and saw her arrive shortly. Her daughter was with her as well, so we were all introduced and were on our way. Bali and I decided that due to the unforeseen circumstances, we would just skip Utrecht this time and hang out with Auntie for the afternoon. We rode into the small town of  Culemborg, heading to Auntie's daughter's house. Along the way, we stopped for an afternoon snack. Auntie picked up an order of kibling which we brought with us to the house. We arrived at the house and went in for a bit. We relaxed and enjoyed the kibling, which is (by the way) a Dutch specialty. Its essentially fried fish (not sure what kind) made into bite size pieces. I guess you can liken it to fish sticks, but its really good!

After our short stop, we got back in the car and headed over to the elementary school to pick up Auntie's grandchildren. On the way, we passed a field where I noted the Dutch scarecrows that were incredibly funny. We arrived at the first school and picked up Auntie's grandson. I had a pack of mini stroopwafels on me, so I offered one to him. He did not take it, although he hesitated, probably because he had been told not to take food from strangers. We headed next to pick up Auntie's granddaughter from school. She was also adorable and I offered her a stroopwafel in Dutch: "Wil je een stroopwafel?". She noddingly accepted as her face erupted into a big smile like a kid given candy....guess this is the Dutch version!

The kids came with us to the house and we all went in. I was introduced to Uncle and Bali showed me to the room in which we would stay. We put down our things and headed into the loft room next door where we laid down and watched from above in the loft and chatted. As it was still mid-late afternoon, we decided to take a short walk around Culemborg before heading over to Utrecht as planned for dinner with the Dutch family friends. We walked through quaint Culmeborg and saw how tiny it was. Bali pointed some of the shops out to me in the City Centre. We also walked by a small river running beside the Dutch family's house. There was a nice bridge from which we admired the view as well as a short dog fight between two growling hounds. We headed back to the house shortly to freshen up and drive to Utrecht for dinner.

Just a short ride later, we reached Utrecht and parked in the big parking garage. It was rather full, so we parked several levels up, giving us a great view of the city! We admired it for a minute, before heading down below into town. I was in awe of the cuteness of Utrecht and commented on its similarities to Amsterdam. I photographed the canals and several other tidbits of the city, as we walked towards the yummy place that Auntie and Uncle had decided to take us for supper. We rounded a canal onto the main shopping street in Utrecht and took the stairs down so that we were right on the canal. Here, we went inside a delicious Indian restaurant and sat down for an amazing meal! We feasted on roti and about eight different Indian dips/toppings. I sampled some of each and really enjoyed them all! It was such a nice meal!

Utterly full, we left the restaurant and headed down the street for a post-meal cup of coffee. It wasn't too cold, so we sat outside and sipped cappuccino while we enjoyed the picturesque view of Utrecht. After we had finished our drinks, we headed back to the garage and got in the car to drive home.

We arrived back at the house and relaxed a bit before heading to bed. I played with Tino, the family's cat. He was a sweetheart, except for when I turned my head momentarily only to look down and see a fresh claw mark dug into the skin on my hand. Tino had clawed me! I said goodnight to Tino and opted to sit on the couch for a bit with Bali and Auntie and watch a Dutch Soap Opera (to improve my Dutch...!?!). It was  interesting experience and a good end to the night.


Saturday, April 24, 2010: Keukenhof

Saturday was the big day of the weekend. We had planned to head out early to Keukenhof, the largest tulip farm and garden in Holland. As it was the annual flower parade, the Dutch family decided to come with us as well. We had a nice drive past Schipol towards Keukenhof (and were excited to see some real Dutch cows along the way!), but as we neared the park, things began to slow. Traffic essentially halted and we were stuck in a jam for over an hour! It was crazy traffic, as everyone had decided to take advantage of the good weather and spend the day at this renowned Dutch attraction.

We finally made it into the park grounds and met up with our friends, Mateja and Christophe, who had taken the train/bus from Tilburg to meet us there. They had arrived about half an hour earlier, since we were stuck in the jam so long. We headed left inside the park and began to explore. There was really a lot to see inside the park and we explored for several hours. We ascended a windmill, hopped across human-sized lily pads and bought postcards to mail. We stopped for a refreshing snack midday: strawberries met slagroom!

There was so much beauty within the confines of the Keukenhof grounds that I am incapable of capturing with mere words. This is why I have decided to include several pictures below that will hopefully help to give you a better picture of what I witnessed at Keukenhof than I can describe in words.

At three, we headed to the back of the park for the day's big event: the Annual Flower Parade. I had read online about this some point earlier in the semester and thought it sounded like a good thing to see while I was in the Netherlands. Hard to believe it was finally here! We gathered behind the large crowds that were queued up and down both sides of the parade route. It was a great day for it, kind of warm even! We waited anxiously for the floats to begin arriving and were stunned when they finally did! They were massive and contained so many flowers creating incredible shapes. Each float had a different theme, each according to an European country. There was Italy, with the bike tour and tower of Pisa, Holland, with cows, kissing Dutch people and Tulips, and many more! We watched the majority of the parade, but snuckout a few minutes early to beat the traffic home. On the way out, we stopped for an icecream cone, which we licked all the way to the car.

Back on the highway, we took a short detour on the way back to Culemborg. We stopped breifly in Leiden, a rather large Dutch city near Amsterdam, where we picked up the Dutch family's son, Rudy, from his dorm. He is a couple of years younger than Bali and I, and attends school in Leiden. We all chatted on the ride home and were happy to arrive shortly thereafter in Culemborg.

Auntie fixed a yummy meal for supper, followed by fruit, coffee and pastries for dessert. We ate and relaxed a bit after a long day of walking and sightseeing before we called it a night and headed to bed.

Sunday, April 25, 2010: Culemborg

Bali and I decided to sleep in a bit this morning, as we were worn out from all our studying, traveling and the long day beforehand. We woke up super late and had a nice breakfast with Auntie, consisting of typical Dutch breakfast staples: bread, meat, kaas (cheese), fruit and coffee. We were to have a lazy day bumming around the house before heading back to Tilburg in the afternoon. Bali braided my hair and taught Auntie how a french braid is done. We enjoyed a nice late lunch of toastis, fruit, soup, cheese and spreads before Bali and I said goodbye and headed home to Tilburg. We arrived late afternoon/early evening and got back to work on campus. It was a really nice weekend, and I was really glad that I got to meet and spend time with Bali's Dutch family friends. They are really nice people!

Here are a few more pictures from this trip, since Keukenhof had so much beauty to capture:

I am writing this blog entry as I am in Scotland on my last big trip of the semester visiting friends and exploring the U.K. Its hard to believe that in less than a week I will be home in the states. Its hard to think beyond this life I have established and been living here for the past five months to the new lifestyle that I will be having this summer. I know that it will be a difficult goodbye next week, and I am still trying to mentally prepare myself to leave the places and people that I have grown to love here. While I am not looking forward to it, I know it is coming and is inevitable to stop. I hope to have all of my trips from this semester fully blogged before I leave for the states, but we will see! Its been so difficult to keep up with the blogging this semester, despite my vigilant attempts!

Anyways, I am enjoying my current trip and look forward to blogging it (hopefully soon!). Stay tuned for more!

Day 92: Maastricht

Saturday, April 17, 2010: Maastricht, Netherlands

Maria and I woke up early Saturday morning for a quick breakfast at the hostel (actually just packing sandwiches to take with us on the train) and cup of coffee before heading up the hill to the bus stop across the road. We caught an early bus along with one of our roommates at the hostel who we had met the night before from Korea. She was headed to the train station as well for the next leg of her journey around Europe. We boarded the same train, but she decided to sit in first class, as that was where her ticket was for.

We were taking the trains back in the direction of Tilburg, but had made a plan to stop in Maastricht for the day to explore this city in the deep south of the Netherlands. I had heard that it was a nice place to go and visit, and it made sense to go now, as we were already down in that direction. Maria was excited too, as she would get to see yet another Dutch city!

We napped a bit on the train ride, which I think was just over an hour. We got off the train and breathed in the fresh, warm air of Maastricht! We went into the train station to check on the locker situation, as we were not about to carry our things around with us all day. It was a rather simple process, and we shared one small locker to stow our things for the day.

Exiting the train station, we found the big map and checked out where the VVV was. We headed in that direction, through an antique market and down the main road. We came to what we thought was the real VVV quickly and looked around for a few minutes. I decided to purchase a self-guided tour map of all the historical monuments and such in Maastricht. The guide offered two walking tours, one that was three hours and the other about an hour long. It had great information that told us all about the city and where to go to see things...and it was in English!!

We exited the VVV and decided to stop for lunch. We went next door to Subway and had a nice sandwich. Then we went to the McDonald's just down the road to get a stroopwafel Mcflurry! I had told Maria all about this delightful creation and she was anxious to try one for herself. We feasted on the Mcflurries as we headed down the road a bit further to the pedestrian bridge where we sat for a few minutes enjoying our Mcflurries. We were surprised when suddenly the boat started moving to accommodate a large boat that was going underneath. It really disturbed the cyclers!

We crossed the bridge and walked downhill into the main shopping area of Maastricht. We came to the second (and real) VVV and looked around for a bit. This was the starting point of our self-guided fortifications tour, so we went back outside and began.

I held the map/brochure and read aloud to Maria the information about all of the interesting things to see in Maastricht. The guide was great, as it gave us explicit directions as to where to turn and where to look. We walked alongside the water and saw some things, before turning to make a giant circle through the city.

We wandered through the streets, squares and parks, paying attention to the information in our guide and piecing it together with the sights. We walked along the old wall that used to enclose the city and even got to climb on top of it for a view from above. We saw some interesting sights as we walked along, including fighting ducks in the park, a Mystery Machine vehicle, and a quartet of older Dutch men singing together harmoniously. It was an eventful and really nice walk!

One of my favorite parts was when we got to go into a windmill that is used to make grain still. It is attached to a small bakery that sells delicious freshly-baked goods. It was quite something to see and we were excited to get to go through it! We also passed by Maastricht University, which was neat to see!

As we were close to finishing  our tour, we decided to sit for a bit and rest. We chose to go to the Chocolate Co., attaining our goal of going to all three! This one was quite cute as well, and we each ordered a cup of steamed milk and hotchocospoon. This time I had Latte Macchiatto...yummy!

Afterward, we wrapped up the fortifications tour on the Maastricht side. It had taken us nearly four hours! We had walked about 4 kilometers, according to the guide! But it was really nice, as the sun was shining and the weather was so great!

We walked back through town past all the shops and stopped in one, 'de Bijenkorf', a Dutch department store. I am researching this store (well the one located in Eindhoven) as part of my Organizational Development course at Tilburg. We are writing a lengthy paper on the change process that the company has recently implemented in the branches of this store in the Netherlands. It was nice to actually get  to go inside one and see what they sell! Its kind of similar to Dillards or Macy's for those of you reading this in the States :)


After our short shopping diversion, we headed across the bridge to Wyck, the former center of Maastricht. We decided to do the Wyck tour on the other side of the water. It was nice as well, and much shorter than the other tour (about 1 km in one and a half hours). We enjoyed the tour and taking pictures on the other side. Just before we left, we walked up on the large, new bridge in Maastricht that we had been eying all day from a distance. It gave a nice overview of the city.

We headed back to the train station where we retrieved our things and boarded the train to Weert (don't ask about the pronunciation ;). We were thrown off again be having to switch to a bus at Weert in order to get to Eindhoven, as there was construction on the line between the two stops. We arrived about 6PM back in Tilburg, glad to be home after another exhausting (but AWESOME!) trip.

We hung out and chilled that evening with my friend Daniel. We went to his place and made milkshakes with Ben and Jerry's icecream! Yummm :)

Maria was supposed to leave the following Monday to head back to the UK. However, due to the volcanic ash, she was unable to do so. She ended up booking a bus back to the UK, and stayed in Tilburg with me through Tuesday. On Sunday, we went with Mateja and Daniel to some of the museums in Tilburg, including the Textile Museum and the Natuur Museum. We enjoyed both (although the textile museum was a bit of a disappointment). We had a lot of fun at the Natuur museum interacting with the exhibits there and behaving like little children....as usual! We went for ice cream afterward in the center with Daniel and Mateja at Intermezzo....yum! 

Monday morning, Maria and I headed to City Centre to try out Mugs and Muffins, a new muffin, coffee and cupcake place in town. We each ordered a muffin (I had cinnamon sugar and Maria had white chocolate raspberry...stop drooling!!!) and enjoyed realzxing in the warm Tilburg weather.

In the afternoon, the girls and I all went down to city centre to the cinema to see the Disney movie, "How to Train a Dragon". We all thought it was cute, even though Maria ended up sleeping through a bit of it! On Tuesday, I had class, so Maria bummed around in my room most of the day and we met up with Daniel for a quick lunch. We said our goodbyes and she headed out via train later in the afternoon while I was back in class.

All in all, it was a really nice visit with a really nice friend! We enjoyed spending time together and getting to know one another better. Maria lives in the Atlanta area, so she will be able to get together with me some this summer as well!

Day 90-91: Luxembourg

After our big Easter trip, I had just over 24-hours to rest up in Tilburg before my next big exciting adventure! My friend, Maria Le from Agnes Scott, was coming over from the UK where she was studying for the semester to visit for about a week! She arrived in Eindhoven early Tuesday morning and we met up at the Tilburg West station right after I was through with classes around 5:30PM on Tuesday evening. It was great to see another familiar face and to catch up with my friend!

We went to mentor dinner that night, but decided not to hit up the LG, as we were both exhausted from our travels. We spent Wednesday looking around Tilburg, picking up my residence permit in 's-Hertogenbosch, and baking quesadillas for the crew for dinner before heading out on Thursday for our big adventure together....Luxembourg and Maastricht!

Thursday, April 15, 2010: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

We woke up early thirty on Thursday morning to head to Tilburg West for our first train on our trek to Luxembourg. I had researched the journey route beforehand, and we were supposed to take four trains in total to get to Luxembourg City. It should take us just under five hours to get there. Well, as you know, things do not always go according to plan....

We hopped on the train and made it down to Liege, Belgium with no problems. We were prepared to hop on our next train to take us to Luxembourg, and ended up having to wait an extra 15 minutes or so for it to come, which we thought was quite odd. We boarded the train and the ticket checker came by pretty quickly. He looked at our tickets and said something in French. I whipped out my, "Parlez vous anglais?", to which he promptly responded "No". Darn, what now? He pointed to the guy sitting in the seat across from us and motioned that we should follow him. Okay, that's reassuring, right?!?

So the train stopped a few minutes later and we were all told to get off and hop on a bus to get to the next stop, Rivage, on the way to Luxembourg. This wasn't part of our initial plan.... We followed the boy over to where the buses were and I went and asked the driver if it was the bus to Luxembourg City. He did not speak English, but I gathered that the bus was not going all the way to Luxembourg City. We stepped off the bus to let others on and began discussing what to do. A woman overheard us speaking, and graciously explained everything to us in English. Apparently this bus was going to Aiwaillye where we would need to hop on another train to get to Luxembourg Gouvy to eventually get to Luxembourg City. We thanked her for her kindness and hopped on board the bus.

A bit later we arrived in Aiwaillye where we got on the train to Luxembourg Gouvy right away. When we arrived in Gouvy, we went inside the tiny train station to look up train times to Luxembourg City. No trains for over an hour! We did not want to wait inside the train station for that long, so we decided to take a walk around outside and explore Gouvy a bit, backpacks and all! We went next door to the tourist information point and got a feel for what Gouvy was all about...nature. We figured out where the heck we were on the map (still in Belgium) and bought a postcard (typical).

Then we walked down the street a bit from the train station past some shoppes and houses. We reached a windy hilly road and decided to sit for a bit on the wooden fence alongside the road. We chilled there for a bit until it was about time to go back to catch our train. Finally, we boarded the last train on our voyage to Luxembourg. We arrived in Luxembourg City around 5:00PM, about eight hours after we had left in the morning! Much longer than anticipated! In total, we had taken six different trains and one bus to get to Luxembourg....what a whirlwind of public transportation!

We arrived at the train station and took a bus to the street that the hostel was on. We were a bit turned around initially upon our arrival to the hostel, but figured out where it was rather quickly. We had to go down a hill (with a nice ramp) to get to Luxembourg City Hostel, where we stayed during our time in the city. We checked in and set down our things in the room before heading out to explore!

We began walking towards the city and happened upon the National Museum of History and Art, which Maria had read that there was free admission on Thursday evenings. So we took advantage of this opportunity to see the museum, which ended up being really interesting! It was massive! It went from floor -5 to floor +5! We explored each level, although most of the information was in French, so we could not read much about it. One of the walls of the museum was made of the earthen rock that characterizes the hills of Luxembourg, so it was really cool to see that in the museum. We were a bit creeped out by the single security guard that seemed to be following us around the entire museum like we were going to steal something.... But is was a really enjoyable museum!

After our museum quest, we headed into the city and came upon the Grand Ducale Palace, home of the Grand Duke during the majority of the year. Luxembourg is the only Grand Duchy in the world, so it was really neat to see the outside of the palace, even though we would not be allowed to go inside during our stay, as the family was residing there at the present time. We turned around and noticed that the Chocolate Company was behind us! We had made it our mission to find the chocolate co. in both Luxembourg and Maastricht, so we were pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be so easy. We noted the location and made plans to return the following day.

Speaking of chocolate, we began to notice that our tummies were rumbling, so we began to look for some cheap eats. Luxembourg is a pretty well-to-do city, and it seemed that every restaurant we came upon was super expensive. So we decided to settle for kebabs- cheap, tasty and filling! I enjoyed a chicken cordon bleu sandwich from the kebab place with fries (and the infamous mayonnaise sauce!).

After supper, we continued walking and came to the main square. We made notes for all the things that we wanted to do the following day, as everything was closed this late in the evening already. On our way back, we came to the ruins and explored a bit. We decided that we definitely wanted to do those in the morning.

Tired from a long day on the trains, we headed back to the hostel. In the lobby we asked the woman at the desk about opening times the following day and decided to relax and watch 'Germany's Next Top Model' in the lobby for a bit. It was interesting as it was all in German, but we understood what was going on, as we had both seen the Tyra Banks version in the States before. After it was over, we headed upstairs to our 6-bed female dorm to get some rest for the night.

Friday, April 16, 2010: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg

We woke early the next morning, got ready, and went to breakfast at the hostel. We had a typical hostel breakfast of bread, cheese, meat and various spreads. We were also happy to have some coffee to wake us up! While at breakfast, we overheard a boy speaking to some girls that he would have to stay longer than anticipated as his flight had been canceled due to a volcanic eruption...hmm, that's odd! We shrugged it off and headed out for the day.

First we walked alongside the scenic roadside and admired the gorgeous view we had from up above of the rolling hillside of Luxembourg...what a beautiful country! We walked all along the road for nearly an hour exploring the hills and catching some great views! We were killing time before the Casemates opened for the day, so we finished our walk and headed back towards town to see the Saint Michael's Church. It was quite nice! Afterward, we stopped into the European Union information center on the corner, as Maria wanted to look at the information available there. She studies History and International Relations at Agnes Scott, and focuses on the EU, so this was of utmost interest to her. I was also curious and picked up a brochure in the center about what the EU does for women....yes, I attend a women's college, thank you!

It was just about time for the Casemates to open so we headed that way. We arrived, bought our tickets and headed inside. We were amazed by how old and historical it all was. We had a blast navigating our way through and getting lost inside the narrow passageways in the Casemates. I was shocked at the extremely low ceilings at some points and noted that the Dutch would have a difficult time in there. We climbed up and down winding spiral stairs and in and out of small passageways. It was a really fun  and adventuresome thing to do, and I loved it! At one point, we managed to accidentally exit the Casemates, so we had to go back to the entrance and re-enter. No biggie. We found our way back and got to see the rest. I think we spent nearly two hours exploring before we headed out.

We went back to the hostel to drop off my jacket, as it was pretty warm outside! Then we explored the hospice gardens next door to our hostel, before heading to the Chocolate Co. for a quick mug of hot coco to relax from our wandering so far. I had a Blackberry Yogurt Chocospoon (so healthy!). We enjoyed sipping our coco outside on the Chocolate Co. front patio and watching a particular tourist attempt to get a picture of the guard on duty at the Palace directly across the way. The guard kept walking in his stance while the tourist waited patiently for him to stop at his post so that he could take a nice picture. Finally, the guard stopped at his post and the tourist raised his camera to snap a quick photo, but before he could press the button, the guard began walking again. Obviously frustrated, the tourist resigned to his seat at the restaurant next door with his wife. At this point, Maria and I were laughing quite hard, as we found the whole situation quite humorous! We finished our drinks and headed out.

Our next stop was the Museum of the History of the City of Luxembourg. I was eager to go to this museum to learn a bit more about the city and country of Luxembourg, as it is such a small, unique and fascinating place. This museum was also quite large and did a great job of relaying the history of the city from past to present. We learned all about the city, and were really impressed with the museum!

After our museum visit, we began our search for a yummy lunch. We headed back to the area where we had eaten dinner the evening before....cheap food area. We split a nice warm panini and then headed next door to the crepe and gelato place for a crepe. We ordered a monstrous, delicious crepe filled with bananas, liquor, cinnamon, cream and garnished with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Next we decided to do what we girls do best on any trip- shop! We went to our typical favorite shops: H&M, Zara and all. I don't think either of us bought anything, but we enjoyed looking around and window shopping.

Next we ventured over to another area of the city to visit a large cathedral that was quite impressive. We then headed next door to the public library where we used a computer to check what was going on in the world. We began looking into the volcanic eruption airport-closing incident and realized it was quite serious. We made mental note that we would need to be thinking about this for Maria's intended flight back to London on Monday.

We left the library fairly exhausted and decided to make our way back to the hostel to rest up and refresh a bit. I took a short 30-minute nap before we headed back downstairs to the lobby. We asked the girl at the desk if she could recommend any good places to us for dinner and she gave us the name of an American food place called 'Maybe Not Bob's'. We decided to try it out, as we could get a coupon at the Tourist Office nearby for buy one get one free on a beverage of choice. We picked up  the coupon and headed to the restaurant.

We enjoyed a nice "American" dinner. I had a plate of yummy nachos and Maria had a burger. To celebrate our last night in Luxembourg, we each bought each other a drink (and got one free!). We shared strawberry margheritas during dinner and sipped a white russian after we had finished.

We made our way back to the hostel after our yummy dinner and got ready for bed. We packed as well, as we would be leaving the next morning for Maastricht.

I really enjoyed Luxembourg and thought it was a very beautiful place. I think the word is 'unassuming'. It is not where everyone wants to go, but it is a really nice place to visit and definitely worthwhile! I would have loved to have had more time to explore more of this minuscule country and get to see some more besides just the city. Next time I'm in Europe!