Gare du WHAT?

Gare du Nord, Gare du Midi, so many train stations, so little time. Well, this morning I woke up early and immediately went to Gare du Nord, which is just up the street to get myself a Starbucks and check out the fares to Amsterdam as we are planning for a trip cross the border next week. The smell of coffee embraced me, the ticket machines didn’t and we ended up having to go to Gare du Midi instead. There we did find a timetable and a cute guy to tell us about prices and times and all was well this morning.

    The French style town of Brussels, who’s inhabitants probably don’t like me calling it French, I so cozy, so nice that walking through the streets is a nice activity in itself, even on Sundays and we even went to the viewpoint of downtown-Brussels right by Place Louisa. From there you can see both the Automium and Sacre-Coeur and it was truly wonderful. The sun was shining all day and on our way home we stopped by Paul to pick up a baguette and some macaroons. Perfect afternoon – check.

    We went out again, Brussels truly is beautiful by night, but only shortly to get some wine and eggs for dinner. So now it’s wine and The Hangover, with French voices, on the TV, what a way to spend an evening – haha.

Mari Clémentine

Drama in Brussels!

Omg, I’m in Belgium. As I walked down the shopping street it suddenly hit me, the smell of waffles, this isn’t my dear France, this is Belgium. Another thing hit me as well, I had left the camera at our hotel. Or apartment place. You know, nothing big, only for holiday-apartments located over an erotic shop with the reception… yeah, you guessed it, inside the shop. I feel so good going in that door all the time. Haha.

    We arrived in Belgium this morning and barely had time to buy a macaroon (ordered in French of course) before we had to get on the bus and our bus driver had a fight with a mad lady in French, English and Russian and then she spat him in the face and he ran off the bus and chased her down the street and… Well, I didn’t get much of it, but she didn’t get to take our bus. Oh, the drama…

 

   For the afternoon, just to get to know the city, we took a tour of Brussels. We went from Grand Place, the big square in the city center, to Atomium, a giant atom built for the Expo ’58 in the city, we saw the royal palace, the triumphal arc, a hundred museums from the outside and not to forget about ten churches. Oh! And then we went to a chocolate store and tasted and watched people make chocolate! Right now we’re working with plotting out were we most want to go and since we woke up at 4 am I guess it’ll be an early night.

Kisses from Brussels,
Mari Clèmentine

Picture of a City - Paris

I was walking around the Latin Quarter in Paris letting my eyes soak in everything I saw and the nose fill with the smell of autumn in the city of lights. As I had did in both, summer, winter and spring I told myself: “There is nothing more beautiful than Paris right now” and when I headed into the Jardin du Luxembourg with a Starbucks in hand, I knew I never wanted to be anywhere else. It wouldn’t help much in four weeks, but at that very moment I just sat down on one of the old green benches and watched students from LLG pass as they quit school. There is nothing a trip to beautiful Paris can’t cure and as I fetched my notebook I wanted to lock the moment inside the paper and I did.

  

So what has this got to do with everything? Well, I love Paris. And this was my experience last autumn, just running around the city of my dreams, writing and drinking hot chocolate, but now I’m going to Brussels and everything’s new… Wow, wow, 2 more days to go people! I’m so excited to just... not go to school. Yeah.

                                         

Mari Clémentine

Homesick.

I’ve bet you’ve been when you’ve been away from you family too long. I know I have. But never before while travelling. It may be strange how I nearly cry on the plane every time I have to leave Paris, but it’s still the truth. Of course it’s always good to come home, but I’ve never really missed it, like in that I’ve wanted to go home in the middle of a trip. This time I did. It was weird in a way, but maybe it was good as well. Human. Missing my friends, my dad and my boyfriend, and most of all missing my cat.
    I never went home though, and I’m happy I stayed. The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. I don’t want to finish the book in a long time, but being home at last, I’m eager to read the next chapter.

The Hard Rock List

So when I tell people I’ve been to 11 HRC’s just in the last 2-3 years a lot of people ask me: Which is the best one? Or better – Which is the worst? I have a top three, and a bottom one, and my experiences might surprise you. And by the way! This is all part of my "warming up for Belgium" posts, so if you want to keep following me and I'll take you to Brussels next week! Will Amsterdam or Brussels make this list?

The current top three is:

                          

1.  Hong Kong

This one is a live bar located on Hong Kong island out of the way for tourists. We were lucky enough to be placed by the bar, and what an amazing time we had! This is a must do in Hong Kong, and experience of few. The shop is small, I didn’t even notice much memorabilia, but it was the best.

2. LondonPrepare to see Beatles, Elvis, Queens, the Rolling Stone, the Cure, Michael Jackson, Madonna and the rest of the music world at once. The 10^th café we visited, was in the city were the first ever was opened and they have lovely waiters and a lot to look at. The shop is huge so bring your wallet!

                         

3. Venice
Ah Venice. Another place with great people working there, a nice shop and a lot of things to look at. Did I mention it’s a great place to escape from the rain? The first thing the waiter did was guessing where we came from and he were 100% right.

The bottom one is actually Paris, don't ask. But wherever you are in the world, the capital often holds a Hard Rock, and you get the same familiar taste and nice faces. Sometimes it’s a great escape from Chinese food (like in Beijing) other times it’s just a place for a drink (like in Venice and Florence) since the country already have great food. But it’s always there to welcome you home. So Hard Rock all the way!

Mari Clémentine

BENELUX-autumn

Okey, so I've been knowing for a couple of weeks now that we'll be going some were this autumn, but I didn't bother writing to much about in case I choose to go to Paris again, as that would probably mean no blogging, but! As we absolutley can't aford going to Paris for autumn-break, and I absolutley can't stand having people speaking my own language louder than any other in the halls of Louvre, we choose to go somewhere new and unexplored: Brussels! They speak french, have the best chocolate in the world and belgian waffels! We're also taking a trip to Amsterdam while we're there and we might also go to Tilburg to visit a friend of mine! I've never been to either before, so I am superexcited!  Unfortunatley we don't have the time to go to Luxembourg, but it's still a benelux adventure, isn't it? So right now I'm spending my free minutes looking through guidebooks trying to decide wether to go to the Chocolate Museum or the Royal Palace first and should we eat at "La Tour d'y Voir" or spend all our money buying chocolate at "Mary"?  I hope you all will join me for my adventure in the capital of Europe this october!

Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris - Autumn 2011

Top 5 things to do in Edinburgh

This list really could go on forever. Edinburgh is a magical city, 1-5 could be WANDER. Because that’s what makes the city. Go to the petit stores and sit down in cafes. Have a whiskey at a bar.  But I made a more specific list for you, and it goes like this:

1. GreyfriarsThe graveyard. Yes, it may be my favorite place in Edinburgh and we passed it every day. With just a dash of fantasy I found peace walking with the dead. The graveyard also holds the beautiful story of a dog and his owner and a couple of Harry Potter names. Don’t be scared, the ghosts won’t bite you.

2. Elephant HouseThe so called “official” birthplace of Harry Potter, a café were J. K. Rowling sat down to write the first chapters of J. K. Rowling. It’s very touristy and even though we came for Rowling, we stayed for shortbread, tea and the spectacular view of Edinburgh Castle. And not to forget the toilets holds the Edinburghs best kept secret.

3. Climb to the topTo get the best views climb to the top of Arthurs Seat, a dead volcano. And if you think that is way too much of a climb, you can just walk/climb around Salisbury Crags instead. I can promise a great view and good exercise!

4. Guy with kilt and bagpipeGirl! or possibly Dude! You are in Scotland and even though they are not hard to find, this is a must-do. So you just go up to him and ask the fellow in the kilt if he would be so kind to pose for a photo with you. He’ll probably love to and here is your vacation2012 photo:

5. TourUp to the Highlands or around the city with Alan Foster on the Book Lover’s tour. Edinburgh has a lot of tours and a lot of free tours as well. Why don’t join the must-do ghost tour I write about in Ghosts of Edinburgh? It’s worth every penny even though it’s free and I must admit it got me feeling a bit sick as well.

Mari Clémentine

Hard Rock Cafe - Brussels

So for lunch yesterday we went to Hard Rock Café, it’s all new and located just of Grand Place and is absolutely fabulous. It has a microphone-lamp and a great art-piece made out of guitars. The staff is very friendly and the food is delicious. I guess this one knocked Venice of the toplist, sorry Venice… Hard Rock nr. 12 was a great experience, a must-go-to in Brussel if you like it.