Leapfrog

I arrived in Paris in the early afternoon after my lovely morning in Brussels and made my way to a friend’s apartment whose couch I would be crashing on. The journey from Paris Nord to Villiers was fairly smooth, the Paris metro is not the best introduction to this beautiful city, but it was a nice slice of reality. I spent the afternoon wandering around her lovely neighborhood, the 17eme, and staking out bakeries for breakfast.

I spent all of my second day at The Louvre, which was incredibly easy. That museum is a whole world, and I definitely got lost in it, metaphorically and in the sense that I needed to ask for directions several times.

After sleeping in and I headed back into the metro and headed for the Palais Royal stop. I’m still under 18, so my admission to almost all museums is free. I spent 6 hours in The Louvre and I did not see close to everything, but I had the luxury of going at my own pace and being virtually alone. I highly recommend museum visits in Christian countries on Sundays!

Leaving Amsterdam was very smooth and not very difficult, I had really gotten a sense of the city and was ready to move on. I just woke up, walked to the Central Station and hopped on my train. The train ride was lovely, I saw amazingly bright yellow daffodil farms and the Antwerpen skyline.

Hello Brussels! I had a little bit of a mix-up on the train and I went to Brussels-Midi instead of Brussels-Central. I walked around a little bit outside of Midi, but the lack of other women walking around made me uncomfortable so I headed back inside and caught the train to Central. I spent some time exploring that area and then made my way back underground to catch the metro to Isabelle’s place. I had dinner with her and her family and then went to bed a little bit early to prepare for my one whole day in Brussels.

I spent my whole day in Brussels in museums. I started in the Coudenberg, a lovely museum that was once a palace and is now an archeological site and ruins that visitors can explore. I was alone there and the acoustics were fantastic so I spent some time just making funny noises and waiting for them to bounce back. I then walked over to The Musical Instrument Museum, which was fascinating. The had traditional instruments from all over the world and you could listen to samples of them being played you could dial on the little device pictured above. I particularly liked looking at and listening to the bass viols and the violas de gambas, as they are my cello’s great-grandparents. From there I entered the intimidating and underground complex that is The Fin-de-Siecle Museum, The Old Masters Museum, The Modern Art Museum, and The Magritte Museum. These museums were great, especially because they were also totally empty. It was a little creepy underground and alone, but the art was great and it was nice to be able to sketch and write in peace.

I also walked through The Galeries Royales, which was pretty but also seemed overly wealthy and touristy. I liked the rainbow gloves though.

After the exploring I took the metro back to Isabelle’s for dinner. I took a little bit of a detour and wandered around my gracious host’s neighborhood, there is a beautiful park nearby, with this giant gate.

I woke up the next morning and went to the market and bakery with Isabelle and Anouk before taking the tram to the station and getting on the train to Paris.

Amsterdam day 3 was really nice, but I felt ready at the end to get out of the city. I started the morning off with a much too short visit to the Rijksmuseum, one of Amsterdam’s main museums on the museumplien, full of works by Dutch masters. I got there close to 9, when it opens, and it was already busy. I popped in on the Vermeer’s and wandered around a little bit, but I find it very distracting to hear that many conversations in that many languages so I headed out. I then walked over to the Concertgebouw where there was a free lunchtime concert. It was a quartet from The Utrecht Conservatory playing a Sibelius quartet. They played well and the quartet itself was amazing, it really made me miss my instrument and my quartet. I spent the afternoon at The Van Gogh Museum, which was spectacular. The wait was crazy though, I spent an hour in line. It is incredible to me that there is one artist that speaks to that many people so deeply. They were also running an exhibition called “Easy Virtue” about art inspired by prostitutes that was surprisingly informative and well-done.

I actually spent my last day in Amsterdam in Haarlem, a little town only 15 minutes away by train. I got to the station and immediately asked for directions, but it turns out they weren’t really necessary, as Haarlem is picturesque, tiny, and well-signed. I first went into the giant church in the main square, pictured below, and I was astonished that such a tiny town could even have enough people to fill the seats. I am still not convinced they do. I then popped into a nearby coffee shop for breakfast and had the best cappuccino I’ve ever had. I had a lovely view of the smallest corner of Grote square and was able to get some good work done.

I spent the rest of my time in Haarlem visiting its two main museums, as well as doing a little bit of wandering around the adorable cobblestone streets. I first went to The Frans Hals Museum, a hofje devoted to that masters works and some of his contemporaries. It was a bright and welcoming museum with an impressive collection where I felt I finally had the space to sketch and write. Haarlem does not get that many visitors. I also went to The Teylers Museum, a museum that is only 2 years younger than my home country. Bananas! It was a funny little hodge-podge of a museum with fossils, scientific instruments, geological specimens, and an art collection. The real gem of that collection is their large collection of Rembrandt etchings and sketches. They don’t display the originals, but have giant books full of facsimiles available for visitors to spend time with. I was also able to work there, so I consider the visit a grand success.

Then I walked back to Haarlem Centraal and caught the train back to Amsterdam Centraal and walked back to my hostel, without getting lost. Success!

p.s. I added more photos to the gallery! 🙂

Amsterdam is a pretty cool town. It is pretty and fun and full of laughter, especially when the sun comes out. It’s my first time in a city with canals and the water and the houseboats have totally captured my attention. Looking at the water fills me with a sense of wonder– How does this work? How could it be possible that this city is floating? (I know that the buildings aren’t floating, but the houseboats are!)

I spent my first afternoon here just walking around, I didn’t even pull out my camera or my sketchbook. Amsterdam is completely walkable. I just headed out and wandered, map tucked in my bag (mom) and water bottle full. I didn’t get lost! This is notable because I have a terrible sense of direction and get lost in my own neighborhood, so Amsterdam must be easy to figure out.

Day Two I had a little bit more of a plan for. I bought a 48 hour unlimited travel public transportation ticket when I first got here for €12.50 and I think it’s the best touring deal in the city. I rode the entirety of 5 tram lines today, Amsterdam has 15, and got to see almost all of main Amsterdam as well as some really cool suburbs. I’m going to ride 2 more lines tomorrow morning before my ticket runs out and the lunchtime concert I’m planning on attending begins. The trams run almost everywhere here, including through grassy traffic circles filled with daffodils and crocuses that can’t be accessed any other way. Just as an example, one of the lines I took went so far out of the city that even though I look like a Jewish American tourist, the conductor spoke to me in Dutch three times before registering that I am not, in fact a Dutch speaker.

That ticket also paid for my trip to my hostel, so I highly recommend it if you like looking out train windows.

Amsterdam does feel like a party city though, and I am not a party girl. I get very disappointed when the coffee house I’m looking at when I need a caffeine hit sells weed rather than a tasty hot beverage that will wake me up, and I do get the feeling that I’m missing out on something very important here. Daytime Amsterdam is full of small pleasures though, so I’ll keep avoiding the nighttime part for awhile.

Also, they do weird things to their trees. They all look like this, and I can’t help but feel they look like a dog with a too-close shave.

So what do you take on a 4 month around the world trip? Not much, actually. Because everything you have with you is on your back, and you have to carry it with you everywhere you go. There is actually an amazing amount of stuff in this backpack and day bag combination. The little polka dotted bag is medicine, toiletries, and electronics. In the gray and black stuff compression sack are all of my clothes. There is also a lightweight towel, rain poncho, sleep sack, and other little bits and bobs tucked in there. I’m also fully loaded with art supplies and have a pair of shower shoes/ flats.

Bonus- my day bag is collapsible and everything can fit into my backpack.

The total weight is somewhere around 27lbs, which is 7lbs more than my ideal, but still totally manageable, especially since I won’t usually have to have my entire bag with me.

Luckily for me, my parents will be able to bring some stuff for me to switch out in Istanbul, that has really simplified matters since Turkey is a really good halfway point between warm and cool weather.

We spent three days driving around the countryside of Iceland, and it was the best possible decision we could have made about our use of time. The true glory of Iceland is its land. I took so many pictures, I didn’t think I could fit them all in one post so I made a gallery. I unreservedly recommend both Hvalfjörður and Reykjanesfólkvangur, a reserve just south of Reykjavik. Both of these places were spectacularly beautiful and fairly deserted, the perfect combo for me. The Golden Circle was very crowded, but if large groups tourists don’t bother you as much as they bother me, those sites are well travelled for a reason.

We spent the three days as follows-

Day 1- Drive around Hvalfjörður. There is tunnel that allows you to drive under the fjord, but I recommend driving around it instead.

Day 2- Golden Circle Drive. While this trip was very crowded, our early morning stop at The Secret Lagoon, a geothermal pool with its own mini geyser could not have been more pleasant.

Day 3- Reykjanesfólkvangur, focused on the mineral lake, and then to Hafnir.

I feel honored to have been able to witness this place. Iceland is very special, and I look forward to visiting it again.

Iceland is beautiful. Seriously, this country is gorgeous, I haven’t left the capital yet, but Reykjavik is ringed by snowcapped mountains, and mountains always feel powerful and ancient and like they know secrets. Just a glimpse of the natural wonders to come convinced me of the island’s allure.

While the mountains feel like time-worn guardians, and the people of this island nation have a rich and long history, (we spent some time at The National Museum of Iceland learning about the viking settlement onward,) everything else is new. Views of the mountains are cut off by scaffolding and cranes in Reykjavik, and all of the building are freshly poured here, because the material most commonly used for homes is concrete. There are some traditional-seeming homes, but they are outnumbered by the glass walls and functionalist exteriors.

The people seem new too, in a way; I’ve seen one elderly lady, walking bent halfway over on the arm of her middle aged daughter, perhaps bent by the ferocious winds, and one picturesque old man, white beard and shaking hands included. I suspect this will change as we journey away from the center of it all, but it’s still puzzling to see such a completely young crowd.

Even the livelihoods of Reykjavik’s native population seem new. Everything is based on tourism here, very successfully so, the country seems to have completely recovered from its recent extreme recession. It is still odd to walk around and spend money in a city that completely depends on foreigners like us walking around and spending money.

We spent most of the day just walking around the city. We had a couple of destinations in mind, like The National Museum, but other than that we just wanted to feel out the place. The weather was beautiful, but varied, meaning we experienced blue skies as well as sun showers. But the sun was out more of the time than the rain and we walked in the bright springtime light around some ponds and through many of Reykjavik’s dollhouse-seeming streets.

For me, the highlight of the day was the time spent in Suourgata cemetery, pictured above. Unlike the rest of the city, this cemetery was thickly treed, and the combination of twisted branches and luscious moss with the old and new headstones made this place feel not otherworldly, but the best of this world. Unlike many of the other cemeteries I’ve spent time in, I didn’t feel the pain of forgotten lives here, but instead a deep peace and restfulness. I didn’t feel like an intruder into someone else’s private space of mourning, though of course, in many ways, I was one. It helped that there was so much new life springing up around the death, softening the edges of the grief and of the stones.

On an unrelated, less interesting note, we’ve had a pretty amazing hotel experience. We booked the least expensive room at one Reykjavik’s fanciest hotels, and by magic and luck we were upgraded into their most luxurious suite. It’s awesome, definitely the nicest place we’ve ever stayed, but kind of an unfair start to a hostel- filled 4 months.

-N

p.s. You can click on the pictures to view them larger, which I would personally recommend. 🙂