Switzerland

The last day of our trip Monica and I visited Geneva and then stayed the night with Anais, a French girl who did an exchange at Mizzou last year.  While Geneva was cold it was still beautiful and this was my first glimpse of the French and Swiss Alps.  Geneva uses the Swiss Francs because it is not part of the EU, so now I have an abundance of useless silver coins that would only amount to a couple euros.   Staying with Anais in her house on the French side of Geneva was a lot of fun and made me realize how similar France is to the U.S, although the French make much better hosts are always offering tea, coffee, and chocolate.  We ate some Crepes, watched Anais's favorite french television show, and watched a french documentary.

Lake Geneva

There is a clock at the end of each street.  The Swiss like to be very punctual

"To change the world, start by changing yourself"

The Bell Tower

The Alps

The broken chair outside of the UN

Brussels

I really liked Brussels and it was an easy city to explore.  I learned a lot about the European Union and stopped by the EU for some free maps and reading.  Brussels was an interesting city because Belgium has many official languages (every advertisements was written in at least three), but everyone I encountered seemed to settle on English as the common ground.  Monica and I walked around almost the entire city, making sure to stop for frites, Belgian waffels, and more beer!

photos from Brussels

 

the wall of beer

frites and beer

the famous peeing boy statue

the girl peeing statue (not quite so famous)

Les gaufres, or waffles!

At night we went to a morgue themed bar called Le Cercuiel, or "The Coffin."  Reyn told us about this delightfully dark bar months ago after reading about it in one of her books, and it was a little gimmicky but still fun to drink out of skull cups and sit around coffins.  We also went to a famous bar called Delirium, which has over 2000 different types of beer.

Belgium

Belgium: The land where beer is cheaper than water.  We took a day trip to Bruges (location of the movie In Bruges), and then spent the rest of our time in Brussels.  

Photos from Bruges

Amsterdam!

After spending the night with the other homeless travelers in the Geneva airport, Monica and I met up with Brian and Jon and then took the train to Amsterdam.  Amsterdam was cold but beautiful with canals, open-air markets, cafes, and more bikers than pedestrians.  I was almost hit multiple times when I forgot to look both ways before crossing the bike lanes.  After getting lost and circling around the city we found our hostel, which was very clean and nice despite the peeling maroon wallpaper and bored indifference of the blond women behind the check in desk.  We spent the night aimlessly walking around the red light district with all the other curious tourists gaping at the women for sale in the glass windows.  Instead of shock or disbelief, it seemed more like I was watching a play with cheap scenery and bad actors.  There was also a sex museum, although we did not go in, and instead we unknowingly found ourselves in a local gay bar with disco lights and a fog machine. The next day we walked around the city and went to the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House.

 

sleeping in the airport

The view from our hostel

the bikes of Amsterdam

Les Pâtisseries, or "The Pastries!"

 

La Belgique recontre Lyon

Brian, Patty, and Jon came from Belgium to Lyon for the weekend!

outside of the Institut Lumière film museum

my favorite photo of Patty, Brian, Monica, and the french children who are impossible to understand