Back Stateside

My time in Leiden has officially come to a close. I got back to the States Monday afternoon, and have been busy ever since. I stayed in Ann Arbor for the first few days. Today, I'm in Grand Rapids, and in a few hours I'll be heading up to Glen Arbor. The traveling never stops does it? Well, good. I like it that way. But you don't really want to hear about America, this is a blog about the Netherlands! So I'll leave you with my final thoughts about Leiden and my six months abroad.

I could state all the stereotypical things about how this experience has changed me and made me appreciate different cultures, and blah blah blah, but that's just boring. I'll just say this: I loved my time in Leiden. I loved living there and all that the Dutch culture entails. I met loads of people and had numerous experiences (good and bad for both) that I think have made me understand the world in a more complete way. Now, for some lists of favorites!

Favorite Trips:
-Prague
-Luxembourg / Brussels
-London

Favorite Dutch Cities (besides Leiden):
-Delft
-Maastricht
-Haarlem

Favorite Dutch Culture Experience:
-Koninginnedag

Thank you all for reading my blog and keeping up with me as I adventured around Europe! I hope you've found it at least a bit interesting. That's all I have to say, so: Tot ziens Nederland!

The Latest (and Last) from Leiden

I want to preface this by saying that this is NOT my final post. Just the last one that I'll write while I'm still in Leiden. I plan on doing a wrap-up post once I'm back in the States. Who knows, I may even write it on the plane back. 

The last two weeks were full of travels for me. I managed to get to Valencia, Barcelona, and London. It was a busy time, but that only means loads of adventures and stories for me to tell!

My time in Valencia was mostly spent relaxing and enjoying my first real days of summer. My Spanish family couldn't believe that I hadn't put on a swimsuit before I got there. I think the highlights of Valencia were that I got to eat paella... twice, and seeing Despicable Me 2 (in Spanish, of course).

My days in Valencia were split up by a quick trip to Barcelona. Maria (my Spanish host-sister) and I stayed with one of her friends who lives in Barcelona for the night and got the insider's tour. The first day there, we walked down the famous Ramblas and saw a bit of the city. But the real sight-seeing happened the second day when we went to Park Güell, the Sagrada Familia, and the port. The park was full of tourists and interesting art. It was really cool to see though. I think it's always nice to have a bit of green in the middle of a big city. I also enjoyed seeing the Sagrada Familia. We decided not to go in, since it cost over 10 euros just to enter. The outside lived up to the hype. It was super interesting to see the texture that it has. In my opinion, in person it doesn't really look that much like a sand castle (as its reputation says), but looking back at my pictures, I can definitely see it. After all of the Barcelonian excitement, I had another couple days in Valencia before heading to London.

Market off Las Ramblas

Maria and her friend Sara in Park Güell

Close up of La Sagrada Familia

My time in London was very interesting. This was the first time that I was ever truly traveling by myself. Sure, I had flown by myself, but never had I stayed in a hostel without knowing anyone else there or had to plan out my own days and get myself across the city alone. That being said, I actually had a great experience doing it. I felt so accomplished when I managed to navigate the Tube and end up in the right spot without possessing a street map. Now time for all the things I did!

The first day I met up with a friend from Leiden who had been in London for the past few weeks. We explored the city for a bit, wandering through the streets and chatting. We managed to see a lot of the main sights that way. After that, I did a free walking tour of the city. I saw a lot of the same things as I had that morning, but this time I got a bit of history and explanation, which is always good to fully appreciate the importance of landmarks. Even after all of that walking, I still wasn't done for the day. I trekked up to Camden to see a friend from Ann Arbor (we didn't even know we'd both be in London until the day before I got there). We meandered through the famous market, caught up on the past 6 months, and enjoyed some Thai food from a food booth. Finally, after being outside for about 9 hours in the scorching heat, I went back to my hostel, took a shower to get rid of all the London street dirt, and crashed.

The next day was a bit more relaxed, and didn't involve quite as much walking. My day started and the National History Museum where I got to see dinosaurs and lots of sparkly rocks. I really enjoyed this museum, and the best part was that it's free! The British government definitely got that part right. I then headed to Covent Garden and weaved my way through the market there. Not quite as quirky as Camden's, but nice nonetheless. Then I walked through Piccadilly Circus before heading off to the British Museum (also free!) for a bit. As with a lot of national museums, I was a bit overwhelmed, but managed to get in a bit of culture before I died from museum fatigue. I refueled with an iced-coffee before heading to Harrod's, where I managed to get trapped inside and couldn't figure out how to actually exit the building. Now, Harrod's is an absolutely enormous department store, so big in fact that they had maps for customers. Most people would want to go to look at clothes or technological gadgets, but not me. Nope, I headed straight for the kitchen section where I was amused for a good 15 minutes just looking at all the fun kitchen toys they have. Yes, I'm a special cookie, I know.

My last day in London, I finally managed to get over to see Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Tourist traps of course, but you can't go to London and not see them. I went, snapped some pictures, and left before I got too flustered with the crowds. Then I had to head to the airport to fly back to the Netherlands. Now, I'm back in Leiden with just over a week left before I head home. I don't even want to think about how quickly the next 9 days are going to go.

Outside Buckingham Palace

Big Ben from a hospital park

RAWR!

Tower Bridge

Mother in the Motherland -- Part 2

This past week included yet another visit from my mom, but this time she was also accompanied by my dad. Needless to say, there were plenty of adventures to be had throughout the whole country.

They arrived on market Saturday, so the first day was pretty much filled with Leiden love. Going to the market is always a must-do especially when we're lucky enough that it's sunny. We also did a boat tour of the city. It was definitely interesting to see Leiden from the perspective of the canals. We also got a decent ab workout since we had to duck every time we went under a low bridge. After that, dinner. I don't remember how delicious the food was, because I was a bit preoccupied having telepathic conversations with a husky sitting on the other side of the restaurant.

Sunday turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day. The parents rented bikes and we rode out to the beach with Abi. It was a bit confusing getting there, since we didn't know exactly where we were going and we only had sign posts directing us. We did make it to the sea in the end, and enjoyed a snacky lunch on the beach. After frollicking in the waves a bit, we headed up the coast a bit farther through the dunes. There was so much sand that I thought I was in Michigan for a second. A well-deserved ice cream, and we were headed back to Leiden. The whole trip took about 5 hours, and we rode for 35 km (20 miles). My legs were exhausted, but my mind was happy because of all of the sun.

First time in the water!

On Monday, we did a quick trip to Wassenaar. Nothing too extraordinary really. But Tuesday was filled with deliciousness! We went to Amsterdam for an Indonesian dinner with one of my mom's colleagues and her husband. So much food! And it was all delicious. As always the chicken sate was among my favorites, along with the rendeng and the spekoek (spice cake). I went to sleep with a happy tummy that night.

Wednesday was the obligatory trip to The Hague. We all got the ever-delicious croquettes at my mom's favorite restaurant before heading to her uncle's house for some good ol' family time. The mixture of languages that was being spoken was a bit confusing since the switch between English and Dutch could and would happen at any second, but all in all everything was understood in the end. We got some dinner on the beach before heading back to Leiden.

Thursday was the 4th of July, so we had some patriotic waffles (per my request) for breakfast, and then headed to Amsterdam to get some more Dutch culture. With my mom's cousin, we went to the newly renovated Rijksmuseum and an exhibition in the Nieuwe Kerk on the inaugurations of the Dutch monarchs. The Rijksmuseum reminded me a bit of the Louvre due to the massive collection and slightly confusing layout. But the Dutch had a one-up on the French since they actually put plaques with information about the paintings on the wall. The exhibition in the Nieuwe Kerk was really cool. My favorite part was the video they had of King Willem-Alexander's inauguration with English subtitles! When I had seen the TV broadcast on April 30, I had a vague idea of what was going on, but it was nice to know what he was actually saying.

On Friday, the parents rented a car and we drove up to a tiny little town in the north called Giethoorn. In the center part of the city, no cars are allowed, so you either have to bike, walk, or boat around. There were a good number of tourists around, and all the houses were charming. There's no way to really describe it, so here, have a picture!

For the last day my parents were hear, we went to the market again, and walked around trying to find almshouses that were most definitely hiding from us. A low key day, but we were outside enough to enjoy the sun that finally decided to bring the Netherlands some summer.

Tomorrow, I head out for 2 weeks as I travel to Valencia, Barcelona, and London! My last big adventure before heading back to the States!

Playing Catch-Up

As usual, I've not been the best at keeping this blog consistently up-to-date. In my defense, I didn't really think I had enough to write a solid post on until I realized that I have 2 day trips (Rotterdam and Gouda) and a weekend in Belgium to catch up on. So again, bare with me as I try to remember everything that's happened.

Rotterdam

About two weekends ago, there was a Caribbean/ Latin American festival in Rotterdam. Being college students with nothing else to do on a Saturday afternoon, we figured we might as well go and check it out. It actually turned out to be a pretty cool festival. It was complete with a Brazilian Carnival-type parade and lots of food. The costumes in the parade were incredible, but I couldn't help feeling bad for all the people walking the parade. It went on for hours as they walked around the city in blustering wind that was obviously out to destroy their costumes. After the parade finally finished, we got some scrumptious Surinamese food. We first had bara which is a type of fried herb bread filled with curried chicken. I never knew that my life was missing it until I tried it. Of course we had to finish with desert, so we tried three different types of cake. Also delicious, but I guess it's very hard to go wrong with traditional deserts. They've survived throughout generations for a reason. After listening to part of a concert, we headed back to Leiden after a full day of culture.

Belgium- Ghent and Bruges

Last weekend, I did a three day trip to explore the cities of Ghent and Bruges. The adventures began a bit early when we were delayed 2 hours in the Rotterdam train station. We were there on time and already on the platform when we realized that the train was no longer on the schedule. After some investigation, we found out that there had been a gas leak in a tunnel out of the station and that no trains were allowed to go in that direction until the fire department gave the all-clear. Once the next two hours passed, we were on the train to Ghent and everything else went smoothly.

The first day in Ghent we walked around and saw all the churches that are in that city, and it's a lot. The city had a really cool vibe to it and all the buildings still had a Dutch flare to them. That night, we went to a beer house (because, hey, Belgium beer) that had over 150 types of beer. I only managed to try one. I'm not that big of a beer fan, but I tried their home-brew which isn't available anywhere else in the world! So check that item I never knew I had on my bucket list off. The next day we did a tour of the castle. Basically the only thing I took away from that was that basically every single room in that place had been used for torture at one point or another. So that was an uplifting message... 

Next, we headed over to Bruges. Even before we had a chance to see much of the city, we managed to run into a triathlon. It was a bit of a surprise, but I'll give anyone a thumbs up if they willingly decide to swim through filthy canals for a chance to win a medal. We then grabbed some fresh waffles and took a short boat tour around the city. After coming from the Netherlands, the canals were a bit underwhelming, but it's so cute that they tried. For dinner we found a place recommended by the free map at the hostel that was close to 500 years old. We were all a bit flabbergasted that this one pub/restaurant is older than the United States. 

The next, and last, day was filled with even more sight-seeing. We climbed the bell tower and actually got to see the bells while they were ringing. We also went into a church and saw one of the only Michelangelo statues outside of Italy. We finished off the day with another waffle before catching our train home.

Ghent

Bruges

Gouda

Last but not least in this post. I'd wanted to go to Gouda for a while, and I figured I might as well do it on a day that they have their famous cheese market, so I did. We walked around the city for a bit, ate some stroopwafels and bought some cheese. We also went into the Janskerk which has some of the best stained glass windows I've seen. My favorite was the one depicting Jonah and the whale, mostly because of the whale bit. Once all of that was done, we went to a little town, Oudewater, and went into the old witch weighing house. It was a super cute town with practically zero tourists, so that made me appreciate it even more. It was a pretty short trip, but delightful nonetheless. 

Generic "Czech" Pun Here

Since my last post (which seems like ages ago), I was busy with studying for exams and finishing up the academic year. But that in no way means that my adventures in the Netherlands and Europe in general are over. Oh no, they are still in full swing. Early last week I headed off to Prague for a few days. What started off appearing to be a near disastrous trip turned out to be a fantastic time in a great city.

About two days before I left, I found out that the country was in a national state of emergency and that there were floods in Prague and that many tourist destinations were closed. This of course caused me to panic, and over the course of the next couple of days, I was searching the internet, trying to find information about how severe the flooding was. Luckily a few hours before I left, the tourism website was saying that the city was visitable and that most sites would be open to tourists. With this huge rush of relief, we were off to Prague!

We got in to the city pretty late, so we decided to check-in at our hostel and call it a night. The first full day started with a FREE tour! The tour company we went with works off of tips, and then overpricing on all other tours they offer. It was definitely a good introduction to the city. We got our barrings and some history about the Czech Republic and the city itself. The tour lead us around to most of the main sites, and ended close to the Jewish Quarter. For the rest of the afternoon we visited synagogues and Jewish graveyards. I was very impressed with all the decoration inside the Spanish Synagogue and shocked by all the names of Jews that died during World War II on the walls in the Pinkas Synagogue. We ended the day with buying a sausage from a street vendor in Wenceslas Square.

Day 2 was a day full of walking. We walked along the Vltava River to see the Charles Bridge (which was closed), the National Theatre, and the Dancing House. It was a nice walk and shocking to see how high the water level in the river was. We did manage to cross the river a bit further down and began our trek up the hill to see a bird's eye view of Prague. Unfortunately the tram that usually runs up and down the hill was closed due to the threat of falling trees, so we hiked up unlike the lazy college students that we are. The view was stunning, so that made the climbing worth it. From there we went to see the castle. In the whole complex, my favorite part was St. Vitus Cathedral. It had incredible decorations and stained-glass windows. Golden Lane was also pretty neat, because they had recreated houses from the past and had a huge display of medieval armor. 

The next day we traveled to the town of Kutna Hora- aka the place with the church with all the bones. The ossuary was amazing and creepy at the same time. I couldn't believe that they had 40,000 human remains placed in such a decorative fashion. I was a lot less creeped out than I thought I would be. After we finished staring at dead people, we headed into the town itself and wandered around for a few hours. It was a nice change from the bustle of Prague.

For the last day, we had a last ditch effort to walk across the Charles Bridge, which was still closed. I guess this just gives me a reason to go back. We finished off our trip with wandering through the city and chilling in a park tourist-watching for a while. Then it was back to Leiden, waiting for the next adventure to begin!

Old Town Square

Outside the Spanish Synagogue

Castle from Afar

Previously Mentioned Stained-Glass

Ossuary

Wolverine Spirit on the Lennon Wall

Paris: "We Should Write A Travel Book"

This past weekend was a trip to Paris. Of course, it started and ended with a very long bus ride. The middle was a ride in itself. Trying to see all of Paris in 3 days is no easy feat. But somehow Abi and I managed to concur the city on a student budget.

We got into the city on Friday evening. It took us about 15 minutes just to find the metro station, but after that it was smooth sailing to our accommodation. We stayed in someone's apartment that we found online. That may sound scary to some, but hey, it's cheap and you don't have to worry about grimy hostel beds. Anywho, after we ditched our stuff, we went to find some dinner. We both ordered omelettes  and were surprised by the size of the plate that we were brought. There was a massive omelettes, a huge portion of fries, and some salad. And all that for just 7 euro? Yup. It shocked us too, but ignited our determination to get the best bang for our buck.

Saturday morning, we headed out without much of a plan, but managed to see most of the super-touristy things in one day (with minimal walking thanks to the super-discounted weekend day metro ticket). We saw the Sacre Coeur which turned out to be one of my favorite things in the end. Probably because there's not a lot of hype around it, but it's still beautiful. We then headed down to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysees, took the obligatory pictures, then pointed ourselves in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. In all honesty, the Champs-Elysees and the Eiffel Tower were very underwhelming. Sure, the Eiffel Tower looks amazing in pictures and is very iconic, but I couldn't help but wonder "Why is this thing so popular?" as I was looking at it up close. 

Despite being let down by the Eiffel Tower, I was pleasantly surprised by the Luxembourg Gardens. It's basically just a giant park with flowers and kiddies galore. But we did go while it was sunny which made it all the more enjoyable. After that we went to more touristy places like the Pantheon, Opera House, and Moulin Rouge. That night we met up with one of Abi's archaeology friends for a very French dinner of cheese and wine at a little cafe.

Sunday, we were ready to tackle the Louvre (free admission on the first Sunday of the month). That is until we saw the massive line. We didn't know exactly what we were getting ourselves into when we got into the line. Little did we know that it would take us an hour and forty minutes before we got to the entrance. We both agreed that we would've been upset if we hadn't stuck it out, so it turned out okay. But yet again, I was less than impressed with the museum. There was just so much stuff! I was on sensory overload and struggling to appreciate any of the art. I also felt like it was haphazardly put together, and spent a good bit of time trying to sort out what was actually important. We did manage to see the Mona Lisa though, so check that one off the bucket list.

For the afternoon we went to the Père Lachaise Cemetery. It was definitely cooler than I thought it would be. It was different from any other cemetery that I had ever seen. And some of the graves were so old that they looked like they were broken into (and possibly were). We also managed to see some famous people's graves like Frederic Chopin. We then walked around the neighborhood Montmartre which is famous for being the artist quarter of the city. I'd highly recommend this to anyone going to Paris.

For our last day in Paris, we decided it was finally time to actually pay to go into something. Little did we know that because we're 18-26 years old and citizens of the European Union we'd get into a bunch of things for free! We went to Notre Dame where the sky decided to open up over our unsuspecting heads and make us look like little wet puppies. It would've been a lot cooler if it hadn't been raining, just so the view from the top of the cathedral was clearer. We also managed to go to the Palace and see where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city and we managed to track down some awesomely delicious onion soup to warm us up.

We got back to Leiden this morning around 7:30 completely exhausted from the weekend (and the lack of sleep on the bus). It was a fun time overall, and I'm really glad that I went. Yet another place I can check off my list!

Sacre Coeur

Arc de Triomphe

Eiffel Tower

Opera House

Louvre

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Notre Dame

Leve de Koning!

It has been a very busy week on this side of the pond. Last week the new king rose to power, so of course the country was in complete celebration mode, and this past weekend I went to Paris! (Paris recap in a different post)

The celebrations surrounding the new king were far from scarce. Festivities started the night before (aka Queen's Night). I went down to The Hague with a few people and we wandered the city to see what was going on. There were concerts all over the place. There was also an area that was like a carnival, complete with fried food and over-priced rides. Not to mention plenty of people already donning their orange attire. It was definitely a party. I didn't stay too long though, because I knew I'd be getting up early the next morning to head to Dam Square to see the new king and queen presented on the balcony.

And that is just what I did. I was out the door at 7am, which is the earliest I've woken up since I've been here. We ended up getting to the square about 2 hours before the king was scheduled to make his first public appearance. But it didn't seem like that long of a wait, because it was fun to watch all the people and scope out who had the best orange get-up for the day. The crowd went insane when now-Princess Beatrix began her speech from inside the Palace with a large  chorus of "Bea Bedankt!" (translation: Thank you Bea!). That was just the beginning too. Once Beatrix, the new king, Willem-Alexander, and the new queen, Maxima, stepped out on the balcony, voices and cameras were raised. It was insane. I don't even know how I managed to get the pictures I did. I'm writing it off as good luck more than anything else.

After the royal family headed back inside, the square quickly emptied as people headed off to other festivities around the city. I ended up walking around Amsterdam and getting a good bit of free stuff. Eventually we headed down to Museumplein where there was a huge concert/festival going on. We watched some music performances and then the official church component of the day on giant TV screens. We got some poffertjes and fries to curb our hunger and round out the day.

It was definitely awesome to be a part of this. One for the record books!

Queen's Night

That's dedication right there

I was spotted...

Oranje Boven!