crying...

I took this picture in Christiania a couple months ago and for some reason didn't ever post it. My dad really likes it (it was his idea to get a picture of it) and he's been asking me to post it. So, here it is...



On to other news- it's 9:20 in the morning. I got up about an hour ago to say goodbye to Ineke for the last time. She's going to work and by the time she gets back I'll have already left for the airport because if you hadn't heard already I'M COMING HOME!!! :)

Headed for the Arctic!

First of all, my flight home was purchased (thanks to Ineke!) last night. On August 21, after a 13 hour flight and a 12 hour layover in Dublin, I will return to beautiful and hopefully sunny California. I could tell you right here all the things that I am excited to get back to in Cali but it would make this post soooo much longer than it already will be. Just know, I am excited!

Second, my dad's trip...When my dad and I started discussing his trip to visit me in Europe his first idea was to come in June to be up above the arctic circle on the longest day of the year (around June 20th). Well for a few different reasons that didn't work out so he decided to come a month later. Not the longest day of the year but pretty darn close to it! We did a LOT. Here's just part of it...we explored Rotterdam, I fell in love with Hamburg (really, might even be my favorite OVER Berlin), visited hippies in Christiania (Copenhagen), crossed the arctic circle by night train, arrived in rando town northern Sweden, drove a few hours to the Norwegian border in the middle of the night while the sun was shining, did not succeed in finding an all night diner in nowheresville Sweden, picked up an 18 year old hitchhiker, hunted for reindeer at 2am, night trained it back to Stockholm, flew a not-so-bad-at-all Ryanair flight back to Holland, hung out with the kids for a week, and lastly, spent a nice weekend in Haarlem.

And for the pictures, I'll start with my night skies collection.

R'dam at its finest...
Old City Stockholm-
Kiruna 12am...
Kiruna 1am...
On our way to Norway. I like to pretend this is a real Sami family but then I remember that they probably live in real/modern houses now...
Middle of the night, Kiruna...
Dad and I in Zandfoort (coastal town North Holland) minutes before I found my first Euro frozen yogurt...
Me trying to be artsy in Den Haag...

Veggie garlic pate, Polorbrod, and salsa mexicana make GREAT train food in Sweden...

The swedes like their crackers LARGE!..

Our arctic hotel did not discriminate in their providing of parking space. Cars, bikes AND sleds were welcome...

Rainbow from the train window on the way to Kiruna...
Copenhagen weirdos, lol...
HUGE stroller for a lil baby...
My Danish danish and my new favorite addiction, chocolate "wafes" found in only ONE Copenhagen 7 11...
Copenhagen peeps thinking they're in New Orleans or somethin'...
Christiania (photos were not welcomed)...

More cute babies, on our way to Hamburg...


And lastly, my dad at my favorite Rotterdam restaurant, Bazaar...

So much happened and I wish I would have kept a more detailed journal of everything so that I could remember it all for ever. I HAVE to start doing that SOON!!!

It's so HOT here!

All the people that told me it wouldn't get hot in Holland were WRONG. It's hot!!

Just in case you were wondering who I live with...

Check out that nice pink bike!

These huge wooden apples down the street from our house...



Delft shopping. Later that day I called a merchant an asshole. He really was being quite rude to us...


Ikea's had this awesome deal going on. The amount you spend in the restaurant is later taken off your bill when you check out with your merchandise. So we've been going there for lunch (my average is about 5 euro) and then we just pick out 5 euro (or however much we spent on food) worth of crap and it's FREE. Here's Audrey's great idea. Just spend as much as you can in the restaurant on stuff you would buy anyway (oj, chocolate, little packets of cheese...lol) and then you can get LOTS of free stuff.


I wouldn't say I'm the luckiest person in the world (this week alone I have fallen off my bike, been ran into by 2 drunk dudes on one bike, got pooped on by a bird and fallen down the stairs) but I HAVE been lucky enough to see quite a few friends from home since I've been here. Thanks to their lovely bands touring schedules. Anyway, a couple weekends ago I took the train up to Steenweijk to see friends from Cali (and one from Germany too) at Trashfest. It was just awesome to see familiar faces. I have a funny video of Marc singing but I'm still trying to figure out how to upload it.

This is just some random guy peeing at Trashfest...

Clara, me, Katrina and Bea out on the town...

I'm getting really excited about my trip to Sweden with my dad. He'll be here on July 9th...I think, and we're supposed to leave for our trip that Saturday but we don't have anything planned!! All we know is that we want to head up north (maybe Kiruna?) as soon as possible to experience the mid-night sun. I should probably go plan it RIGHT NOW but it's SOOOO HOT (it must be getting to about 80°F these days...probably like 90° in my room!) and the heat some how drains all of the motivation out of me.

Lauren, Kate and I went to Groningen...

...FREE. Hitchhiking with the help of this guy and sleeping with the help of this thing.

Lauren making our beautiful signs...

These are for some Animal Rights campaign, I think...


Kate standing in the best (or so we thought) spot for hitchhiking...


This is one of Albert's boats. The other one is a house boat that we slept on :)...


Trying to get home. 30 seconds after this was taken we got picked up by a women who told us about how she toured the US with her band...

It's always after a trip that I realize I definitely didn't take enough pictures.

My mom was only here for 12 days but it feels like we did a LOT! Through the week I had to work my regular schedule which meant my mom and I stayed around Rotterdam but on the weekends we did some awesome exploring. The first weekend we drove our cute little Fiat Panda into Belgium with the only requirement (by me) being that we stayed in the French part. I chose Saint Hubert which we later learned is the hunting capital of Europe. It was a super tiny town but really beautiful and had a cute burger place (with great veggie burgers) called Ketch-up. The next morning, right after I practiced driving our cute little Panda (stick shift) we drove into Luxembourg with the intentions of stopping to sightsee but ended up just driving through to get to our destination, the Tera Ventura Resort and Spa (pool with water slide, disco, bowling alley) in lovely Gondorf Germany. Gondorf is a little TINY town close to the even tinier town of Spangdalem where my mom lived once upon a time. Spangdalem is actually pretty rad, it felt like a little American colony randomly placed in Germany. It was really nice to be able to see where my mom used to live and the places she used to hang out...we didn't ever actually make it on the military base though.



Some crazy Lourdes shrine in Poix Saint Hubert...



The next Saturday we left early for Groningen. Nice city with a nice "feel" but what I liked even more were the small towns we drove through on Sunday during my quest for Pannenkoeken. Lovely Pieterburen stole my little heart! :) How could it not, I mean with a "biological pannenkoeken resaurantschip"...restaurant housed in a boat that severs awesome organic pancakes! Leeeeekkkkkkkkkkeeeerrr!!!







This is one of our stops on our quest for pannenkoeken. Pretty museum...



And back in Rotterdam on the harbor for "drinks"...


My new favorite restaurant in Rotterdam, Bazar!



I love Germany! ok bye :)

I've been in love for a while...

While riding my bike down the beautiful streets of Den Haag about a week ago I saw this...

I saw the movie the next night. Unless imdb is wrong, it's not being released in the states. So yeah, all you Americans are totally missing out on Mr. Bernal's (hottie/my future husband) new movie. Bummer for you.