As promised, lunch was had at an establishment that was a step up from Texaco known as Autogrill. The fact we were excited about it is pretty sad and shows how low we got the day before. It offered lots of options, but we settled for Pizza Hut and a few mini bottles of wine. You know, the essentials for any 2+ hour bus ride.
Our room in Luxembourg was cute, but there was no AC and lots of moths if you left the windows open at night :(.
The view from the window was beautiful.
This was just outside of our hotel.
Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Jordan, Amy, Jen B, & Justin
We tried to explore the city the first night, but almost everything was already closed.
The square where there is live music every night.
Jordan stopped some locals to ask them for restaurant suggestions. They directed us to an Indian place which made dishes that compete with the Barcelona Paella for the best food we've eaten so far. This is momo.
spicy chicken wings
2 different curries
more chicken
To cleanse our palate. After I took this pic, I forgot to try one so I have no idea if they were good or not.
Full and happy...look at how cute the place was!
Like I said earlier, everything was closed (including liquor and grocery stores). Not willing to let anything stand in the way of boozing, Amy, Jen B, and Justin took a cab to the closest gas station. This is probably the moment I knew we'd all become great friends.
The court tours continued the next morning with a visit to The European Court of Justice.
The bus dropped us off at the wrong building at first, but we eventually got back on track.
The EU currently has 27 member states and the ECJ is composed of one judge per member state.
The building was brand new and really nice. This is the ceiling of one of the courtrooms.
I could not imagine having to argue a case in here. So intimidating.
Each side of the courtroom was lined with translator boxes. There are 23 official languages of the European Union which is just insane considering that every decision must be translated as many times. For our case alone, there were people translating into at least 5 different languages in real time.
Waiting around for the proceedings to start. This is Alison everybody! She's from Texas. We've made lots of Texan friends on this trip so you can guess where we'll prob stop on our way to Nashville next year!
That's Jordan on the end. She lives in Brooklyn and I'm jealous.
We got to use these cool earpieces to understand what was going on.
The case was about a Polish lawyer who was trying to use his previous education and background to skip the test required to practice law in Germany. Those are the attorneys for each side. They were all really tall.
This was called "Hands & Glue" or something like that.
There were sculptures throughout the building.
We skipped the tour to grab some caffeine.
The rooms were immaculate and they all had translator boxes which just shows how incredible their operation is.
We listened to a presentation about the work and organization of the ECJ by Judge Koen Lenaerts (the Belgium member of the Court). He was an adorable, energetic little man.
They served us lunch and this was one of the dishes. It was some gelatinous thing with ham and eggs...
We walked to the soccer stadium for the game that night.
I saw this car along the way. I think it's the smallest Mercedes I've ever seen.
Success!
Waiting in line for tickets. The man so knew he was in our picture. Look at that grin!
We made it inside.
Luxembourg v. Latvia billet for 15 euro & 2 beers for 6 euro.
So the stadium was empty but you never would've guessed from how much fun we had.
They weren't very good. I think JD and Jess C could have shown them a thing or 2.
A bunch of people made it out that night.
Jordan, Justine, Mahrosh
More of our peeps.
This is Justin from Montana. I think he might be my first friend from Montana??
more of the girls
This is Jen P. Her family lives in Florida now, but she is basically from Hawaii. Some of you might recognize her because she went to Punahou for a few years back in the day! Heather, I think you know her...I keep forgetting to talk to you about this.
Ok so we were pretty camera happy at the game.
I grabbed this from Alison's blog. This is her explanation for why we're all laughing so hard:
I'm making a funny face because the girl taking the picture said to say "del duca" who is the "organizer" of the trip. and he is an 80 year old man who is NOT organized!!!
I don't remember the girl saying "del duca" but I will take Alison's word for it. Either way, she is spot on with her description of The Duke.
Jess C's Jen and Jess
The whole gang
We totally asked for autographs/pics at the end. Dey was the only one smart enough to get one with one of the players.
This is Jess C who is also from Texas. If your name isn't Jenn or Jess at this point, then I just feel bad for you.
The Jens needed a pic together. Triple points!
Jen & Jess...Jenn & Jess...so confusing.
Our new Luxembourg friends
I wanted 1 euro gelato so badly, but it was closing as we got there. Jen & I made really sad faces and the shopowner opened up for us again (points!!). I got strawberry and it was sooo good.
I know some of you don't believe me, but we actually had class while we were in Luxembourg too. I just didn't take pictures of the classroom because who wants to see that? Exactly. Just trust me, we are studying really hard during all of our downtime! :)
xx
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