Trilingual Reunion

After five years we have finally managed to see our French friends that we met in Spain. Between the five of us we all lack knowledge in one of our three common languages -French, English, and Spanish. With me being the worst in my lack of French. Somehow we managed to communicate all of us with a funny mixture of the three languages.

I was really looking forward to this visit and finally seeing our friends again and somehow it was even better than I could ever have imagined. We had so much fun and learnt so much about the food and culture in the north of France. I'm learning alot about french cheese. We went to a supermarket and they had an entire aisle just for cheese! And all of them different! I think we had cheese and dessert after every meal, even if there was already lots of cheese in the meal. Like the flamiche au maroilles that we had for dinner.

We visited an old swimming pool that has now been transformed into a really cool art museum. And it's in a town that used to be very famous for its textile industry so there were some old fabric catalogues and fashion exhibits in the museum too.

Today we explored Lille and it was full of Swiss people for the French Swiss soccer game tonight that was in the Lille stadium. (We went to the fan zone for another game last night and I scored a goal to win a bag! We even saw the Swiss soccer team yesterday by coincidence as they were staying at the hotel right by the museum and arriving just as we were leaving the museum.) 

Lille's such a nice city (even with all the drunken soccer fans) and so easy to walk around or take the metro or tram. Lots of character and of course delicious food. Apparently we need at least two weeks to try everything typical of the region but I think we got a pretty good sample.

Thanks guys for everything! I hope we get the chance to host you soon. Missyou already.

Copenhagen

So even with a delayed flight from Boston we still had a bit of time to get out of the airport and explore Copenhagen. It's very easy to get from the airport to the city. We got an overview of the city by climbing a tower with a spiral staircase around the outside. It didn't have a top landing- the stairs just kept getting narrower and narrower until you couldn't climb any higher. 

After this we explored the Christiania neighborhood that was recommended to us by a lovely older couple we met while waiting in Boston for our delayed flight to board. They said it was a friendly, open neighborhood that smells a bit like Amsterdam and is very safe with no trouble and lots of interesting houses. They were right. You aren't allowed to take photos on one of the streets so pardon my hand blocking the photo but I thought it was interesting how the booths were set up to block the identity of the sellers. We didn't explore too much because we had a flight to catch to Paris. 

Boston: follow the red brick road

We had a great time in Boston with P's cousins. They took such good care of us and we got to see a lot of the area. We spent a day in Boston city. It has so much history! It was nice to see it in person rather than just read about it in a grade school history book. We walked along the freedom trail following the red brick road. I kept thinking of the Wizard of Oz. We took a free NPS tour, ate lunch at Cheers and even had some cannolis in the North end where we ran into a procession for St Anthonys day.

Our following of trails continued in Salem where we learned that all of us are psychic. We just have to find it within. Needless to say we didn't actually believe this so didn't but any charms or pendulums. It was fun to see and pretend though. Along the Salem Witch Trail we learned a lot of history too.

And we can't forget about the Sam Adams brewery tour, delicious dinners and wonderful company and birds!

Overall a great stay in Boston.