Reminiscing of recent travels
Summer has started, so that means I can’t travel now - work is getting busy and I have to stay put for a whole 4-5 months. I don’t know if I can do this, which is why I’m trying to get away to Paris for one or two days during the Olympics. I want to experience the feel of the city during the Olympics, and of course, visit Canada House to access the exclusive limited-edition Team Canada x Lululemon collection 😛. But future travels are for another day. Recently, I’ve been to Paris to see my sister for the first time in almost two years, and to the Netherlands to see a penpal (hi again Laura!).
Paris was quite the trip - an emotional rollercoaster you could say. After waking up at 5 am (or as we would write in France, 05h), my sister landed at the Paris Charles de Gaule airport, and I had yet to board my train to Paris. Four and a half hours later, my train arrived on the other side of Paris. I ran onto the metro (after getting temporarily lost between the train and the metro) and got myself to my favourite square in Paris, Place de la République, where my sister was hanging out at a café near our hotel. After running out to get her, we went to the hotel to drop off my bags and headed back out.
Café les deux gares, Paris 10
The first stop, avoiding the metro, was Café les deux gares. Literally, the ‘cafe of the two train stations’ because of its convenient location between Gare de l’Est and Gare du Nord. For those who know the area, you’re probably thinking why on earth did you bring your sister here on her first trip to Paris? Don’t worry - it gets worse. Since first dining here when I first arrived in France, it quickly became my favourite bistro in Paris. The amazing quality food at amazing prices never fails to please me. I remember my very first meal here, a 25€ lunch plan which had a full octopus tentacle for the main dish. Again, they did not disappoint, this time with a vegetarian option of cauliflower steak. Normally, I’m not a fan of cauliflower steaks but they seemed to have changed my mind this time. I can not for the life of me remember what else was part of the dish, but it both looked and tasted amazing!
Café Louise, Paris 6
Café Louise has become a tradition for me every time I’m in Paris. Alone or with friends, I will always go! Thank you, Carla, for this amazing find and tradition! While uber-expensive, Café Louise just has this vibe to it, a vibe that is oh-so Parisian. The traditional tables and chairs outside are all turned to face the street allowing you to people-watch, the inside has a chic upscale Paris vibe. For me, Café Louise is an essential stop for pre-dinner cocktails, or as we say in France, apéro. They have a small selection of very very good cocktails, each one named after a famous landmark in the area. My favourite is the Saint Sulpice, named after the Saint-Sulpice Church, about a 10-minute walk from Café Louise.
Euphorie bar à vin, Paris 18
I’ve been wanting to go to Euphorie for a while now. Ever since my trip in January 2023 when I went to visit my friend Joyce who had been living temporarily in Paris, and finally, over a year later, I got to eat there. Euphorie is a wine bar with an amazing wine selections and tons of small plates. I think my sister and I shared three or four plates. The servers were very helpful in selecting a wine and explaining all of the dishes, even helped me translate things into English for my sister! A place to go to again, but with someone who enjoys wine more than my sister - I guess you could say we have different alcoholic tendencies…
Du Pain et des Idées, Paris 10
Another classic for me in Paris, in my favourite area. When I have a choice, I will always opt to stay in the 10th arrondissement. Place de la République, Canal Saint-Martin, Rue de Lancry (the most lively restaurant-filled road that I first stayed on when I arrived), the area around Gare du Nord for all my Indian grocery needs - it’s just my favourite part of Paris! One of my favourite things to do in Paris in the morning is to stop at Du Pain et des Idées to grab a quick breakfast, either a chocolate-pistachio snail or a praline (caramel and nuts) snail and sit along the Canal Saint-Martin people-watching and enjoying my breakfast. Du Pain et des Idées is a classic example of a high-end neighbourhood bakery in Paris, bread being sold by the kilo, warm pain aux raisins available until they are sold out, and a coffee pick-up window.
Brasserie Martin, Paris 11
A trip to Paris is not complete without tasting some of the classics, onion soup, snails, and a croque. To ensure my sister had the full experience, we went to Brasserie Martin, a classic French brasserie not too far from our hotel. We got there at 11:45 and of course, in classic French style, they refused to seat us until noon, when lunch service starts. Though I don’t blame them, I would have been equally as annoyed. Speaking of annoyed, the lady seated beside us we extremely annoyed. Her company was not on time; from what I gathered as she was on the phone, the person who was supposed to join her was lost in the area and this lady refused to leave to help her, just simply telling her to ask someone for directions or to use her phone to find her way here. On our way out we passed a lady who was running in panting looking like she was in a rush, we assumed it was this lady’s company for the afternoon. Anyhow, at Brasserie Martin, we had the obligatory onion soup (though I felt the onions were half raw 😖), snails (though they came without the shell ???), and my sister wanted a classic croque-monsieur, though they were all out - and I do not remember what else was ordered.
Classic Tourist Activities in Paris
Of course, I had to take my sister for the obligatory tourist walk - the Louvre pyramid, Jardin de Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triomphe, and the Champs de Mars with a quick walk over to Terrace Trocadéro. I think, in my humble opinion, that the Arc de Triomphe is so much more worth it than the Eiffel Tower. I say that without ever having been up the Eiffel Tower. But, the Arc de Triomphe is just something completely different. The Arc is the centre of a ton of famous landmarks in Paris. From the top of the Arc, you can see the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Sacré-Coeur, Notre-Dame, Tour Montparnasse, Centre Pompidou, and so many more! After a quick break at the hotel, we went back out to Montmartre for sunset. Of course, a classic is to sit on the stairs in front of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica and listen to the live music from the buskers, sing along, and buy a beer from the random guy handing out beers (I totally did not do that, but if you want to, no one will stop you!). This is where it all went downhill.
I thought, oh since we’re going to Strasbourg-Saint Denis, might as well catch a direct metro from Barbes, instead of two or three connections from Anvers or Abbesses. If you know the slightest bit about Paris, you know you do NOT take a visitor to Barbes. I thought, she lives in Toronto, she knows what to watch out for pickpockets and preparing to take the metro when walking through weird parts of town. Apparently, I was wrong, and I should have stayed right behind her at all times, but her phone was stolen right out of her hand going through the turnstiles getting into the metro. Luckily she noticed right away and we were able to lock her phone using my phone and sporadically track its location as the thief turned on and off airplane mode waiting for us to wipe the phone remotely.
Sur Mer, Paris 10
After a stop at a cell phone shop that was miraculously open at 8:45 pm on a random weekday, we finally got to my favourite restaurant in Paris, Sur Mer. A very cosy and intimate seafood restaurant serving up only the freshest fish possible. The thing I love most about Sur Mer is that the menu is never the same - ever. The menu will change based on what was available that day and what the chef-owner decides to whip up. The tiny place only has space for two or three in the open kitchen, which is also the bar, and the place to pay for your dinner. This place never disappoints, we were evidently not in great spirits at that time.
Only a month after, I embarked on a trip to the Netherlands, with stops in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Amersfoort. This is a trip I’d be happy to replicate again and think I might do that at some point in the future.
Amstelpark, Amsterdam-Zuid
After almost 10 hours of travel, I finally go to my hotel in the south of Amsterdam, after having gotten lost in the metro station, because I feel like that is a necessary thing to do in a new city. I got to my hotel, checked in, had the obligatory conversation about the hotel I work at, what the hotel does and does not provide colleague discounts on (unfortunately not the restaurant), and headed up to not drop dead in my bed. To prevent premature sleep, I decided to head to the park with my book. Conveniently across the street from my hotel, the Amstelpark is a really nice park in the city, though you can still hear the cars from the highway. I must say, this park is HUGE - there is mini golf, a miniature train, a petting farm, a restaurant and café, galleries, and still more I can’t think of.
Old Amsterdam Cheese Store, Amsterdam Centrum
Of course, I had to go for a cheese tasting in Amsterdam. I had to get this done before I saw my friend because she unfortunately does not like cheese, despite being Dutch. This was very enjoyable - was it because of the five glasses of wine at 11 am? Noooo, not at all! We got to taste five of their signature and popular cheeses - I really enjoyed the older ones. Aside from the cheeses, the experience itself was very interesting. There were only three groups, me on my own, a couple from Hungary, and a group of 6 or 8 friends from Nice and its area. The person leading the session was actually from Milan — this allowed for a cool experience, with personalities from all around Europe.
Amsterdam Tulip Museum, Amsterdam Jordaan
I think this was my favourite museum of the trip. Tulips are my favourite flowers and when I walked past this museum, I immediately decided no matter how much it cost, I was going in. Luckily, it was only 5€, so it didn’t hurt at all. I think it was the smallest museum I’ve ever been to, crammed into the basement of a store, and had so much information to take in. I enjoyed how they were not afraid to give the whole story of the tulip, how it originates from central Asia, creeping into China and southern Russia, and the Black and Caspian seas. The museum took us on a journey of how the tulip was first discovered, celebrated in the Ottoman Empire, and slowly made its way to central Europe.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Museumwartier
The Van Gogh Museum was everything you would expect of it - amazing art, lots and lots of gift shops within the museum (even a bookstore), and lots and lots of people. Something I remember more than the art itself was the random man giving a group a tour of the museum. The museum doesn’t offer tours themselves, just audio guides for you to rent. On Airbnb and Booking.com there are plenty of people that allow you to book a day at the museum with them. We tried to escape him, avoid him and his loud mouth telling us bits about Vincent’s life that I would have preferred not knowing, though every time we thought we escaped him, the scent of his BO was back, so logically, we moved through a section of the museum very very fast and then caught up with a school field trip…
De Boot Hap & Tap, Amersfoort
Laura’s aunt owns this amazing restaurant that is just so good. The principles of the restaurant are zero/low waste and sustainability. All of their furnishings are second-hand or reused - the glasses were the bottoms of wine bottles, the same for flower vases and water jugs. Laura tells me that often on busy days, they will run out of dishes to prevent over-purchasing and waste if things go bad. My favourite part of the menu is the surprise multi-course meal. You can purchase a meal, either 3, 4, or 5 courses, and every course will be a surprise from the kitchen based on what food they have available at that time. We chose to get a 3-course surprise meal, which was insane! A salad with some really cool East Asian-inspired flavours, a ribeye steak (!!) and a peach dessert, really it was amazing and I would go there again without hesitation!
Traditional Food at the Utrecht Centrum Market
I think this was my favourite part of it all! Eating all the fried food that totally didn’t make me sick afterwards! I remember in high school for one of my culinary classes, we had a unit all about donuts and fried foods. The final assignment of the unit included pulling out a country from a hat and we had to make a donut or donut-like thing from that country. I pulled out the Netherlands (oh the foreshadowing 6+ years ago) and so of course I made oliebollen! All these years later, I found out that the recipe I found was totally unauthentic, even though I had to use Google Translate to translate it from Dutch. Oliebollen does not have apples in it, just dried round fruits (raisins, cranberries, currants, etc), and also, they are about the size of a fist, not a Timbit. Regardless, it was amazing, aside from choking on the icing sugar - which I think is an obligatory part of eating them for New Year’s. We also had stroopwafels, poffertjes, kibbeling (fried fish), and tompouce (basically a Dutch millefeuille with a pink icing on top). The night before, Laura also introduced me to brood met hagelslag, bread with butter and chocolate sprinkles (they literally have a whole section of the store with various types and sizes of chocolate sprinkles). I totally didn’t bring a box of these back with me and definitely am not eating a slice of bread with chocolate sprinkles right now.
Downey’s Coffee and Tea, Amersfoort
Everywhere you went to in the Netherlands had High Tea (the fact that high tea is really dinner and not afternoon tea doesn’t need to be spoken about, but the high tea was actually afternoon tea). I love a good afternoon tea! I think in all of my time in the Netherlands, I probably had 2 or 3 high teas. My favourite was at Downey’s. We sat there for like 2 or 3 hours, just talking, eating, and drinking tea. When we got there, they told us, oh high tea includes unlimited tea bags and teapot refills - that was a bad thing to say to Laura and I, who both love tea and drink multiple cups a day. I also really enjoyed how Downey’s is a café that hires people with Down Syndrome, hence its name. All of the servers had Down Syndrome, and the café ensured that the servers all had the support and tools they needed to be independent in their work. This is also another place I would go to again, especially for the unlimited tea!