... take a gondola ride

Venice was on my list of top ten places to go in the world. Heck it was #1 so it wasnt a stretch for me to "find" the time to get on the train and go! After a overnight train in the same compartment as some friendly Americans we arrived in Venice around noon and then walked across the city (and bridges!) to the hotel. We stopped to sample the local cuisine along the way read: tomato and mozzarella sandwich and fruit ( I knew there was a reason I wanted to go there). Then we headed off to St Marks Square. Over the next two and a half days I saw Venice inside out. The entire city is one big maze, there are dead ends, shortcuts, and black holes. We got lost many a time but always seemed to find some nice Italian person to direct us, usually by sign language, along the way. St Marks square with the bascillica, Dodge's palace, Florians, pidgeons, gelato, and delicious pasta restaurants surrounding it became the mainstay of our visit. The gondola ride was amazing, I was on it with a woman from England and a family from Spain. I felt like at any moment I was going to be dumped in the Grand Canal but as I hung on for dear life I enjoyed every moment, it was seriously a dream come true. If you ever get the chance to go, do it seriously, I would go back for the gelato, fruit, pasta and pizza, but then we all know I love carbs.

... have a 'nice' time in Nice (groan)

Since I still had days left on my Eurrail pass I caught a train early in the morning on Monday with fellow Texas A&Mer Lacy to the south of France for some fun in the sun and badly need cool blue water! We rented a umbrella and lounger and basically spent the day catching up and catching some rays and catching up on reading. It was wonderful day and I didnt get burnt! Wahoo! Th beaches in Nice are not actually all that nice, they are not sand they are rocks and they hurt as much as stepping on rocks in bare feet do. Just imagine trying to fight standing up on racks while the waves are trying to push you down and drag you out to sea, doesnt sound like fun huh? well you would be half right since 70% of my mind was thinking about how AWESOME it was that I wasnt sweating like a sinner in church like everyone usually does in Paris because I was in water! I hadnt been fully submerged in the crisp blue h2o since may and trust me when you have to ride a metro with sweaty people pilled on top of you sometimes the shower just doesnt cut it! So the water felt amazing and dinner overlooking the Mediterranean wasnt half bad either! We caught a night train back to Paris so I just got in this morning at 7:30! It was a fantastic day of fun and sun and no sweat, just a preview of what will be coming up in two weeks in Greece! I cant wait!

... become and expert chocolatier in Brussles

In Brussels we took a city tour which was a fantastic way to see the whole city since we saw about ten different things we didnt know were in Brussels. They had held the World Fair their and built a huge monument for it that is an Iron atom which is so cool! We also went to the Delirium Cafe where they serve over 100 beers, Chipper tasted some, Anna and I abstained. But I did have some Brussels moules (mussels) that were great! Oh great now Mom is going to make me eat mussels all the time now... Our hotel was by the headquarters of the President of the EU, the second time we have stayed by the Eu buildings in our weekend city! The country of Belgium is not only famous for its mussels and chocolate (which I will get too in one minutes) but also their monarchy. We say pictures of their King and Queen and the Heir apparent and wife in all the shops and their subjects seemed to looooove them. It was also a tad disconcerting to be shown botanical gardens and cathedrals and told that it was for the use of the royal family and they were only open to the public on certain days out of the year. Ummm hello 21st century pretty sure withholding things from the common people is how many a revolution started... might want to think about that King Albert! Now on to Chocolate, so important it must be capitalized! We got to tour a chocolate shop, and by "got to" I really mean I made Anna and Chip take the tour, and we learned how chocolate is made from start to finish, a very riveting slideshow detailed the trek and I was amazed by how the standards of cleanliness got more extreme from Africa to Belgium... seriously think about it. After the slideshow and talk with a chocolatier he asked if anyone wanted to make some molds, well you know me if it has to do with baking or cooking I am in like flint so my hand shot up and so did I. I got to pour the melted chocolate into the molds and scrape the excess of and then wait for it to "freeze" meaning the helper went and got another slate out of the freezer and I got to ound the mold really hard on the counter to make the little chocolate men fall out! There were nine of them and only two didnt fall out, so I tried again and alas they became decapitated. But the guy said that eight out of ten was really good so maybe I can add chocolatier to my list of accomplishments!

... be neither buyer or seller at the Red Light district

We were originally going to Brussels for the weekend and found a excursion company that would take us to Luxembourg for a day but it ended up that that particular tour was full so we ended up hopping on a train for Amsterdam! We got to spend about 8 hours in Amsterdam, going on a tour, seeing Anne Frank's house, walking through the Jourdaan district, touring a diamond cutters office and their subseqent store, (ask me anything about color, carats, clarity and cut because I know exactly what I want now) eating at the Hard Rock cafe (what we needed a little Americanness) and of course on our way back to the train station for our train back to Brussels walking through the Red Light district. Anna was hilarious she would have to almost get up her courage to walk past the girls in the windows and then would sprint straight past and only spare the most passing glance. I looked, I didnt stare (umm awkward) but I looked I mean its like going into a department store right? I may look at the men's clothes but its not like IM going to buy them so I dont spare them a long glance. Wow I just related prostitution to a department store... nice. Anyway the train ride back was eventful as Chip, Mr frat-tastic, had not filled in hi Eurorail pass; definition of filled in: writing the date you are traveling on your paper, not getting a stamp or paying money, writing a date down; thus causing him to get in trouble with the train ticket man who was wearing a ridiculous hat so it was extremely hard to take him seriously and them Chipper had to pay 45 euro for a ticket when we were already on the train and more than half way back to Brussels. Oh did I mention that Chipster partook of alcohol on the other accoutrements in Amsterdam's cafe before heading back on the train so he was ummm how should I say this not on top of his game... in a word: hilarious.

... bake the perfect croissant

Croissants here I come! everyone is invited over for croissants, pain au chocolat, jam triangle twists (and foccacia bread) made especially by moi! I had the best three hours I have had in Paris by far in this baking class! I absolutley LOVED it. I realized that baking is way harder than anyone thinks, baking is way more fu than I thought before, Meryl Streep in Its Complicated could not have made pain au chocolat in one night because the dough has to sit overnight, I love jam, and I want a stand up Kitchen Aid mixer and cooling trays for my birthday. The class was so much fun and even if I have to toot my own baking-whiz horn my croissants and other pastries were the best! I cannot wait to make then at home so raise your hand if you are ready for brunch at jane and Katie's house! (Since I cant see if you raised your hand you can leave a comment on the blog and that will suffice!) I really dont know who reads this blog so you can tell me that too!

... see the hills alive with the sound of music

So we didnt go to Salzburg but we went to Vienna, close enough right? I mean that is where the Baroness was from so we made it somewhere in the movie! Vienna was wonderful and beautiful. everything was old school traditional and the ringstrauss, basically the ring around the very middle of the city, was the coolest place to people watch. We (Anna and I) took a city tour and saw all the fabulous sights and then went out to Schonnbrunn palace, basically Marie-Therese's bad A house. The gardens were magnificent and I liked this palace and its surrounding gardens better than Versailles! We went to a Mozart concert, and I sat through it because it was Vienna, it was okay but lets face it I was a little more interested in the free champagne we got that the music. We tried the famous chocolate torte and strudel, apple of course, again it was fun to try but I much prefer gellato and PF changs' chocolate cake (hint hint since my bday is coming up). All the streets were beautiful and I would pick out a new "house" on every block! We tried to get to Salzburg and go on the Sound of Music tour but alas it wasnt in the cards. The trains both there and from were crazy we transfered in Munich from a sleeper train from paris on which this family got on in the middle of the night after Anna and I were already asleep and turned on their flashlight and shined it right in our faces (jerks) and then took the covers off Anna (I guess to check it she was real....?) and then the whinny kids who were too old to whine couldnt decide which bed to take, I can understand the predicament except on your ticket it tells you exaclt what bed to take and you dont have another option. So that was fun and then coming back from Vienna we had to stop in Frankfurt and our train was an hour and a half late coming in so were going to have 5 minutes to find our train to Paris (the very last train to Paris) and get on it. So we bolt off the train from Vienna and run like mad to find where our platform was, we find it and oh the train is late by ten minutes so we ran to get dinner and we ran back (sweating profusley by this time since its like 90 degrees and there is no AC and no breeze in the BUILDING) and the train is now delayed an hour. So we hit up Starbucks for some free wifi and a drink. I tried to order a passion iced tea but oh yeah I forgot they dont have ICE so they cant make that. Chalk up one more thing I want when I get back to America, the list consists of but is not limited to: AC, ice cubes, Chuys, Honey nut cherrios, real milk, girl scout cookies, my bed, Lilly, passion iced tea, sonic drinks, no more french people and much more.

... understand that the Swiss are the best

This past weekend Anna and I went to Geneva for the weekend on the train. It was an intense ride seeing how it was over 90 degrees and there was no AC... yeah all you US people think you've got it bad well at least you have AC and drinks with ice, because we don' t. We got in Friday night and after checking in to the hotel went and had possibly the best dinner I have had since I left the US, we sat outside, in a breeze (very important), and had a wonderful time. The next day we went and saw the United Nations building the Palace des Nations and then walked through the botanic gardens and then walked towards the town along lake Geneva. We went on a boat tour of lake Geneva and saw all the sights such as: the mermaid of Lake Geneva, the house where FDR and Eisenhower stayed, Josephine Bonaparte's house and of course the famous spire of lake Geneva, the fountain that shoots water extremely high in the sky. After our boat tour we went on a trolley tour of the city and saw: the reformation wall, the oldest church in Geneva, the Opera and other amazing sights. All in all it was a great trip and you would think that all we would have to do was get on the train back to Paris right? Well you would be right except somehow we didn't do that... we got on the train in Geneva that was leaving at the EXACT time as on our ticket and said it was going to Gare de Lyon, well that is one of the train stations in Paris and the one we left from so we hopped on and I feel asleep. I wake up an hour later to Anna yelling "Katherine everyone is getting off! The train is stopping here!" Well obviously we are not in Paris so we look outside and where are we... LYON. FRANCE. Yeah the Gare de Lyon in Lyon. So we freaked out and ran out on the platform trying to desperately explain what we did and what happened to a platform attendant and he told us to get on this other train right next to ours because it was going to Paris. So we jumped on and not one minute later does it depart, I kid you not. So we are trying to find empty seats because of course our assigned seats are on another train and we find two in the last car, in the last row. Adventure? I think so!