When it rains, I don't mind being lonely

Location:Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Most of today was seen from inside a vehicle. It was raining most of the day so I found a neat little city tour bus and hopped on and literally rode it in circles for hours. I think I may have made the loop 3 times. I got off the bus a lot to look at stuff so I wasn't just sitting there the whole time, but, still... pretty funny.

Luxembourg was amazing. Even in the cold rain, I loved it. It's such an interesting city with an amazing history. I didn't get a chance to go into the villages or see the country at all, but I think it probably was amazing as well (I was told by some pretty awesome Lithuanian women that it's worth seeing, so I'll have to try it out :) They seem pretty reliable). The country has a really cute little monarchy which has a nice set of Royal sons... I pick Prince Felix... he looks the cutest, plus he's not the heir so we'll always just be a cute little Prince/Princess family. And as a bonus, I get to live in Luxembourg!! YES!! And he likes polo (says Wikipedia... wow, this has gone too far) so he rides, which makes him my perfect match. We can have ponies at a castle and be rich and live happily ever after. *sigh*

Anyways!! Back to reality. The city was beautiful. I stumbled upon Notre Dame Cathedral pretty early in the day (right at 11 AM to be exact) and so I went to part of mass, but I didn't stay because I was in jeans and I felt like I was too under-dressed. From there I walked down to the Palais du Constitution and looked at some really amazing views of the old fortress. Apparently, some king acquired the original castle from the Romans which he built on and turned into a really large castle. Because of the central location of the city on the continent, it has been through a lot, and most of the fortress has been destroyed, but there are still quite a few towers that are visible and most of the underground part is still there. St. Micheal's church is another one that is in Old Luxembourg (the part originally surrounded by the fortress) and is really beautiful.

The most interesting part about the city is how diverse it is. Although Luxembourgish is the national language, almost every person in the city spoke fluent English, French and German as well. The newspaper had articles in German, French and Luxembourgish... it's just whichever language the author wanted to write in. My bus tour was telling me that in law, the opening statement of each lawyer may be in a different language than what the judge gives the verdict in or what the jury gives the sentence in. It's so interesting. Plus, they call themselves Luxembourgers... who doesn't want to be a part of that party!

I got on a train at about 5 and rode to Paris and now I am here and I am so in love. Everything has been so beautiful. My hotel is amazing (I didn't know how to get in at first, but Mom came to the rescue). I have a really cute little balcony with an amazing view and it's right in the middle of town. I'm so excited for New Years tomorrow. I have quite a big shopping list for myself and tons of things on my to-do list considering there is only like 8 hours of sunlight. YIKES!!

Ok well off to bed. Can't wait til tomorrow!!!

XOXO

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Grolsch, Girls and Ganja

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Long, LONG, day of travel. I left at about 10 AM this morning and got into Luxembourg at about 5:45 this evening. Just after sunset. I can already tell this city is fantastic. Even in the dark and in the rain it looked beautiful. I can't wait to see it tomorrow. I had the great idea that I would just walk to my hostel from the train station. It said it was only 3 km which didn't seem TOO bad and it was nice outside - that is, it was nice until I got far enough from the train station to not know how to get back and not be able to catch a cab anymore. It took me about an hour to find the street that intersected the street that my hostel was on. And about half way through that hour... it started POURING. At this point, I'm walking around the outter wall of some castle and there's a 500 foot drop to the lower town on the other side. I am so dead lost I don't know what to do with myself. I ask two nice looking people for help, one couldn't understand what I was asking and the other had never heard of this 'Rue du Fort Olivay' before... GREAT. So I made my way to a busy street and stood there and waited... in the rain... for a taxi to come and take me down the 500 foot plunge into the lower town (I never would have guessed that it was down there). It's nice and warm. I am grateful to be here.

Last night was great fun. (Ear Muffs - Kate Z.) Nate and Brian called me shortly after we last spoke and I met up with them and two of Nate's friends Matt and Eddie. We went to the bulldog so they could go to the 'coffeeshop' and get 'supplies' then we went to a bar and drank Grolsch and Heineken and they depleted their 'supply.' It was really quite amazing to me that this all went down in a bar. We walked down the street to another locale and passed a special Mushroom store that sold only mushrooms... again... interesting. And of course there were all of the girls in their little apartment looking things in the dark alleys... this town cannot be real. It seems so innocent during the day (except the Cannibis museum that you can go to). I had to be back by my 2 AM curfew, but the boys say I missed out on a whole lot more of the same thing. Grolsch, Girls and Ganja (i may have butchered that so forgive me for not being a pro).

The train ride today was beautiful. There was so much water and so many birds. Swans were everywhere in the countryside. There were canals leading every which way and the little sheep in contrast with the green green grass was just so pretty. And of course, there was the occasional windmill too. And the occasional reindeer. And the occasional Nuclear Power Plant (I swear I saw 4). One place I do want to go back to is Trois Ponts. It looked like Crested Butte but in Belgium. It was so pretty with the mountains and the trees and this little river with rapids running through the middle. It was definitely somewhere worthy of a second glance.

I had a lovely little lunch and dinner en route. I bought 2 baguettes, a chunk of gouda, a chunk of some sort of ham sausage stuff and a bottle of wine for €7.50 and had both lunch and dinner on the train. It was SOOOO yummy and I felt so cute and back-packery. Oh and when I got into Luxembourg the country, I got a cute little welcome text that said "Welcome to Luxembourg and LUX GSM!! We wish you a Happy New Year 2008!!"

Well, thank you Luxembourg... I wish you a Happy 2008 as well!!

Out for now, I'm sure I'll have a lot tomorrow.

XOXO

PS - Terri and Becky... you guys owe me some brownies :)

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