weekend! halloween! europe!

so this halloween will be the first time in my entire life that i'm not dressing up and participating in Halloween Activities... because i will be IN FRANCE! my fantastic friend christina lives in paris, and it's been three years since the last time i went to visit her so it is clearly hiiiiiigh time for a visit. so i'm going! on wednesday! i can't wait! but it means i'll be missing halloween, which is partly a relief (don't have to think of a costume!) and parly a bummer (i like costumes!). (they don't really do halloween there. last year christina brought her hubs and his brother over for halloween, and they got to dress up for the first time in their lives, and it was hilarious.)

anyway, to make up for missing Actual Halloween, my friends and i went to the most fantastically awesome haunted forest this weekend. anyone local: it's called Markoff's Haunted Forest, and it's about 30 minutes outside of DC in the middle of nowhere, MD, and it is SO FREAKING WORTH IT I AM SO SERIOUS. i'm not really one to get overly scared by contrived scary situations... but omfg they do such a good job here. they have you walk through these remote, dark woods for about 20 minutes, with the path lit only by candles, and every few feet there's another clearing full of creepy things, including tons of live zombie-people, who lurch out at you terrifyingly / chase you down the path / lock you in sheds full of hanging bodies. there were chainsaws involved. it was amazing. i wish i had pictures, but i was busy screaming and getting locked in sheds while my friends yelled for me from the outside, which meant the creepy zombie-people inside the shed heard my name, which means they could back me into corners moaning "AAAALLIIIIIIICE. ALLLLIIIIIIIIICE. AAAAAAAAAAALLLLLICE" which makes it Not The Ideal Time to frame up a nice photo, if you know what i mean.

if you are within an hour of this place, you need to go this weekend. seriously.

so hey, back to europe! i'm going there this week, have i mentioned that? :-) i land on thursday morning, then christina & her boy & i are headed to amsterdam on friday. amsterdam! i've never been there! this is going to be so great! the weather currently claims it will be in the 40s and potentially rainy every day, unfortunately. i plan to not care. oh, and to bring a coat this year, as opposed to my brilliant layering plan in germany last year, where i was all "psh, coats are so annoying and bulky! and will totally ruin my plan to use a carry-on for 10 days in europe! i'll layer and bring a sweater or 2" and HAHAHA FAIL. lesson learned. i'm bringing a coat AND a hat AND gloves this time. thanks, stupid alice-of-2007!

i'm headed out to get an amsterdam guide book after work tonight, but for anyone who's been there: any must-sees i need to check out while i'm there?