Trip Post 3/3: AMSTERDAM

hey!


Long time, no update. D:


Truth is my lovely purple SONY VAIO laptop that I bought in June 2009 (and has been nothing but a complete pain in the ass since December 2009 due to a shitty hard drive, a shitty fan, and an craptastic video card) is simply too annoying for me to use any more. So for the past two months I've been using my mother's hp desktop. Luckily, the SONY guy is coming over this week to fix my baby all brand new again. The thing is, that has meant no blogging.

Also, in July I got hired by the cafe at Barnes & Noble, and getting back into having a routine has more or less worn me out. That also led to a lack of blogging. XD

However, in light of me needing to back up all my files before my system is reset by the SONY man, I decided to put up with my crackling fan, screen failure, system lagging, and fatigue and finish my last damn trip post. :D

So, on to Amsterdam, my favorite destination of our trip!

From the train outside of Brussels.

Most delicious pancake of my life, with churizo sausage, green peppers, tomatoes and cheese!

Loved this place. Just down to road from the Anne Frank Huis, if anyone reading this ever

travels here, I definitely recommend this place!

Wine shop run by a really funny guy. XD

Fellow shopper in the used book store. <3

Mannequin legs in the window!

So many trams. We got free rides because they kept running out of day passes, and none of the

drivers cared. I freaking loved Amsterdam. 

I liked the focus on the glass rather than the view, haha.

Famous bridge! And a swan family!

Part of our sight-seeing tour on our second day there was the Gassan Diamonds Co. We

saw how they were made, their quality classifications. I know now how to accurately judge

the quality of my future engagement ring. ;)

Now THERE is a rock! A brilliant cut 57 facet top wessleton with perfect clarity. Behold, ladies.

It's the size of my finger nail, I kid you not.

Forgot to take photos of the Van Gogh museum, so I took photos of the tickets, haha. The

museum was very nicely put together as far as his life line and the evolution of his work, but it

was sad they didn't have some of his more famous pieces.

Lady on a bike almost got hit by a tram here. She wasn't paying any attention!

The building here on the way to Dam look like they're drawn in a Disney film.

I love the countryside. And the gloominess here is so lovely. This was taken on the way to

Zaanse Schans to see the windmills after my  very unhappy, hangovery morning.

Windmills in the Zaanse Schans! And the wind was actually blowing and stuff, so they were

actually working. :D I freaking love windmills, you have no idea!

Whirling windmills and goats. Not for the faint of heart. D:

New shoes, lol

Swan family! Swan mum was there too, but didn't make it into the photo.

Our awesome room at the Rembrandt Classic Hotel. We loved our huge room and lovely view.

People are hilarious. <3

This is from the workshop Rembrandt used for his etchings. Very inspiring and incredibly complicated looking.

The chandelier make a nice crown, no?

This burger was a monster. And came with not one but TWO types of potato. D:

Cool tower.

4 days in Amsterdam and we were back to the airport.

So many pictures! I hope it wasn't overwhelming. XD

Trip Post 2/3: PARIS

Happy 4th of July!

How about it. 4th of July here, and like a true American, I'm posting about Paris and eating a croque monsieur. It's sunny outside still, but raining buckets and thundering confusedly, so who knows about fire works.

Anyway, I meant to post this earlier, but I got lazy, and then I got stressed out about some things, and now I'm back to normal. So, here we go!

Forgive some of the pictures btw, as many of them were taken through coach bus windows. Though I tried to make it look as artistic and purposeful as I could, haha!

Off to Paris by Eurostar☆. It was a nice, smooth ride and interesting to listen to the people ahead of us having champagne and talking politics.

French countryside. The sky was so beautiful, and I wanted to get a picture of these little tower-things on some of the farms we passed. I have no idea what they were, storage possible, but they looked so neat out there in the middle of the fields.

On our way through Paris by coach, we went by the Printemps department store. It looks so beautiful! I about died we didn't have time to go in.

Again, not much of a view from our hotel, but walking about out there made me think somewhat of LA, which I liked. 

Room. I spent so much time trying to figure out why there was only one painting in the room, and it was shoved over in that corner.

The walk to the Tour Eiffel from our hotel. Not bad at all, and especially useful for when our tour group abandoned us there the second day, haha. Yes, we are apparently those tourists.

I took a lot of pictures underneath, too, but on my mum's camera. There is just something so cool and steam punk about it.

Waiting for it to get dark to take photos of the lights. This is my new imitation Chanel bag from Camden Market. ♥

Lingering by the Seine as it slowly got dark.

Love those people over there. They seem so happy. ♥

Video-ed the lighting up of the tower! Forgive the bad angles!

Street signs! Dunno if you've noticed, but I love foreign street signs. Taken during our day full of Paris-tours. (Day 2).

People waiting to cross the street.

Dior shop window... not that you could tell or anything, haha!

This was taken from the cafe we ate at at the foot of the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. I put this photo up for 3 very important reasons:

1. Sacre Coeur up on the hill 
2. Our waiter kept setting his serving tray on this van and leaving it there
3. There was a man painting himself gold for well over an hour

Sign and map of the area at our local metro station. Always good to know where you are.

Macarons bought in Montmartre. They were so delicious! The white one was cheesecake, then there was orange, raspberry with chocolate, lime, and strawberry. They were wonderful and perfect and cost me a pretty penny, but completely worth it.

Taken along the Seine during an evening river cruise. The cruise was way over-priced and a waste of time, but the view was beautiful.

Heading down the Champs-Élysées at night. I filmed this in segments all the way to the Arc de Triomphe from the front seat.

Part 1

Part 2

Part3

Part4

The next day we were off early to Versailles.

This was from the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, which we were rushed through on our 3rd and last day of Paris. I took pictures of everything here from candlesticks to floor tiles, haha.

Toting around my Primark bag, prepared to buy stuff (which I did, later), I took a quick snap of myself. Just one as not to appear too vain. By this point I was giving up attempting to look cute. Shitty shampoo+constant fatigue will do it to ya, eh.

That afternoon we went to the Louvre and got stuck on a sweltering hot bus in the middle of traffic for an hour (European public transport is always trapping us, haha), which I have photos of, including a competition between my mum and I to see who could look more tired.

The next day we were up early and off to my favorite city, Amsterdam!

I leave you with a song appropriate for the holiday. 8D

blogger award what

Rules: 

1) Say something about the person who gives you the award.

2) Write something about yourself and your aim with your blog.

3) Give the award to 9 bloggers you like! (don't forget to tell them!)

Got this from the wonderful miss wave! Thank you for being so sweet and reading my lulzy ramblings, though they stray into goofydom more often than naught. miss wave has been my friend since I somehow got my lulzy, gothy self stuck in university 4 years ago. When I saw her in my Japanese class, I never thought she'd be become one of my best friends. But we've had so many good times, I'm so glad she did! She's stylish, ambitious and bubbling with personality, and I only hope one day I can catch up with her blazing trail of awesome.

My aim with this blog was like a lot of the gal-bloggers on blogspot right now, I think. I started following gyaru fashion blogs during my study abroad and thought I'd give it a shot myself. Only, unlike the people I follow, I can't teach anything about gyaru fashion or trends, as I don't know enough, myself, spending all my money on lives and band goods, while wearing holes in my shoes and stockings. And there are so many styles I like, I'm not sure which one is for me. So the idea here was that I would develop a style for myself, using this blog, but I've never been good with staying on topic... /tldr

Nine bloggers I like! This is hard, because I never talk to most people I follow, haha (I'M FUCKING SHY OKAY... and a li'l drunk). Also, it seems most people I follow have already got this. But I'm gonna' list 'em anyway.

1) EЯI ♡ of ダイヤモンド★DЯEAM
Because her blog is glamorous and bright and full of cute things (from cats in the laundry to pretty nails)!

2) Jiroko of Going One's Own Sweet Way
Because she's funny and her life is awesome--or as her blog says, "at least I like to pretend it is". And hopefully she'll get a hint here and update more often.

3) Miss Caro-chan of F Yeah Lolita
Because she has a very witty, intelligent style of writing. Lots of humor, too. I'm not Lolita (with a dignified, capital L), of course, but I'm a fan of all kinds of styles, and if I were Lolita, she'd be my guru.

4) Natsu of ☆Egoist Life☆
Because she dresses cool like a rockstar, with great style, and she makes the most delicate, adorable cakes you've ever seen.

5) Jenny of sushi-cat.net
Because her blog is colorful, fun to read and updates frequently with cute photos and links to sites I get lost on for hours.

6) Rii of Utsukushii Gal
Because she always dresses cute and kind of rock, and posts lots of great photos.

7) Sara Mari of Moments Like Diamonds
Because of her gorgeous hair. And because she always dresses to the nines, writes interesting, picture-filled posts that keep me reading. And her One7Ways column, which is always so nice and well done.

8) Tori of Cherri Story
Because her pictures are great and she's a frequent updater, too. Lots of great posts here.

9) miss wave of hey there, dream chaser
I know you gave me this, but I don't care. YOU GET IT AGAIN. Hahaha

I will probably not tell most of those people ^ that I'm giving them this, because they already have it, but just for the sake of archiving... :D


And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I was gonna' post about Paris today, but I'll do it next time, for real.

I don't really have much to say now, but I do have some photos.

I got the July issue of Ray. Not a magazine I typically look at, but for some reason (maybe its the hot, Georgia summer) a lot of the outfits and clothes I'm seeing featured in it are really appealing to me.

Came with a cute fan by Apuweiser-riche.

Like this completely poupee girl set up? lol

So many cute clothes perfect for this ridiculous weather. 

I usually feel so out-of-place in color, though, haha.

Love. This. Hair.

And I generally am accepting of all kinds of styles. But something about men in these awkwardly-rolled pants... :/

But of course, anything is cute on Yusuke.

And what is the purpose of white-soled shoes?

I guess I'm just not this mature yet.