In the Land of Tintin: Architecture and Yellow Phone booths

Europe is relatively small. Belgium, on the other hand, is tiny. Not as absolutely miniscule as one particular country I visited this weekend however- Luxembourg! Only three hours on a train, and suddenly we were in another country- I still have no idea when we passed the border. The public transportation here is fantastic- I love the fact that I essentially decided on Friday to go to another country on Saturday, and I easily bought my ticket and left in the morning (ridiculously early). Also, if you are a student, tickets are even cheaper and you get access to this wonderful deal called a Go-Pass: 10 journeys for 50€, which lets you go anywhere in the country for only 5€ essentially.

I managed to convince two friends to adventure with me, a girl from Turkmenistan and a guy from Tajikistan. While each country has its own language (Tajik and Turkmen), they can also speak Russian since both countries used to be under the Soviet Union back in the day. Thus our day was an interesting mix of English, Russian and French!

When we arrived in Luxembourg three hours later, not quite believing we were in another country already, the first thing I realized about the city were its yellow phone booths. Yellow? Having spent a semester in the UK, I'm used to seeing phone booths-in red. I never realized other countries had them in different colors! Fun fact of the day. I was so excited that I had to take a picture with it. Just a fun, unique part of the culture in Luxembourg.

That and really impressive architecture. Just walking up into the old city from the train station, we crossed over a huge, gorgeous bridge which arched over the green valley below. Luxembourg City is extremely unique because it is intersected by this giant valley, a river running far below, trees and plants creating a vivid green contrast to the solid brown and grey rock walls that encircle the greenery. Bridges crisscross the valley, some old aqueducts, others brilliant feats of engineering. Impressive architecture part one. What was even more impressive to me were the buildings and remains of fortresses and castles carved into the rock. Most are centuries old and have been built, destroyed and rebuilt multiple times, such as the Bock,whose inner chambers are a UNESCO world heritage site thanks to their history.

By chance, since we happened to go on a Saturday, there was a weekly market going on in Place Guillaume, much like the market at Gare Midi in Brussels. Fruits, veggies bread, and flowers! A whole lot of beautiful flowers, and some exceedingly odd-looking ones... My favorite stall that I discovered however was the pasta stand! It was entirely composed of freshly made pasta, in every shape imaginable: linguini, orcchiette ('little ears' in Italian, which is what they literally look like), tortellini and more. I desperately wanted to try some, but as we would be walking around the city all day and it was only the morning, we decided this might not be the best idea.

Instead, we meandered around the city, which is extremely small, just like its country. While walking through a park searching for an old villa (which was not all that exciting once we found it), we discovered a really exciting playground. I mean really exciting- it was an entire Pirate ship! Complete with forts, rope bridges, masts, and steering wheel. If only I had lived here as a kid. As it was, I couldn't resist climbing on it. Yup, definitely one of my high lights of Luxembourg City. Pirate playground.

Pirate Ship!!

I also found this fantastic museum, the Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art- I highly, highly recommend you visit if you're ever in Luxembourg- especially if you're a student because you get in free! There are four or five levels of History, starting at the very beginning of humanity up through the Renaissance, and then three or four levels of art. The layout of the museum is absolutely beautiful, all the exhibits are really well done. Everything is mostly in French and Dutch though, so it helps if you know one of the two to really enjoy it. If not, there are booklets in English and a few other languages on each floor too.

To wrap things up- Luxembourg is an incredibly beautiful, rather luxurious city (we did find a $250 haircut and a $10,000 watch), with incredible architecture. From the Palais Grand-Ducal where the Duke of Luxembourg lives, to the museums, to ancient houses and the ultra-modern European Court of Justice, I felt like I walked through an Architecture 101 class. Tomorrow is Carnaval here in Europe, and we're going to visit the small Belgian town of Binche for their...unusual and famous Carnaval traditions!

A photo tour of the architecture: