Spring break 2015 was one for the books! I went to 4 cities in 6 days and all with one of my best friends, Allie, who was a camper with me at GUCI.
I met her last Monday in the town in The Netherlands where she is studying, Nijmegen, after my flight was 3 hours late. It is about an hour and a half train ride from Amsterdam. Once there, I met her study abroad friends (2 of which go to UNC) and we just hung out and Allie and I caught up. In Nijmegen, everyone rides bikes everywhere. Allie's dorm is in between her campus and city center. So Tuesday morning we braved the cold, dreary weather and rode the bikes into town. We went to a bagel place which was delicious because there aren't a lot of opportunities to have bagels in Barcelona. After which, we went out into the cold rain and walked around city center and stopped in a few stores, Allie introduced me to a McFlurry that is just in the Netherlands, and I stocked up on American candy (like Reese's) that I haven't had in 3 months! By then, we were frozen so we went back to Allie's dorm to relax and then made dinner together. Her dorm has common areas attached to the kitchens so we went to one on her floor that night to hang out with her friends from the program. Unlike my program which is all American students, Allie's program is made up of mostly non-Americans, so this was a fun opportunity to hear about other people's experiences and cultures.
Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early to take the train into Amsterdam. We had planned to start off with the Anne Frank House but the line was so long already so we went off to do other things first. We walked around just exploring, stopped in the cheese museum (and obviously tried the samples), we saw the canals, had delicious waffles, and once we saw everything in that area of town, we got on line at Anne Frank. The only good thing about our freezing 3 hour wait were the fries we shared while we were in line. Once I got in, the house wasn't exactly what I expected. I was very surprised that the rooms were not set up like they would have been when the Franks/others lived there. I thought the actual bookcase being there was very moving and cool. Another thing I noticed was that the space itself was much bigger than I had in my mind from reading the book. I'm sure it didn't feel big with that many people living there but the rooms were pretty decently sized. And finally, the actually diary and the rewritten pages at the end of the museum were very cool to see. It made me really think about her being there are writing them.
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| Outside of Anne Frank House |
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| Line for Anne Frank House |
After the museum, we checked into our hotel which was in a different area of town, closer to the area with all of the big museums. From there, we went to the Heineken Experience. It was a tour and a museum all in one where we learned about how Heineken began to be made, how they make it today, and how to properly drink it. It was a lot of fun. To end the night, we met up for dinner with another friend from camp. Thursday morning we only had a bit of time before we had to go to the bus station to head to Belgium. But we stopped at a cafe around the corner from our hotel and had the most delicious breakfast I have had in a while. After that, we walked to the I Amsterdam sign and took a ton of pictures. On our way back to the hotel to grad our things, we walked through a fun little market. While it was short and sweet (and cold), I loved our time in Amsterdam! It is one of the prettiest cities I have been to with every building, even the ordinary chain stores, having a beautiful facade.
We got to Brussels at about 4:30pm on Thursday. We had to figure out which tram to take from our bus to the hostel. Once we did that, we checked in at the partner hostel for the actual one we were staying at, which was kind of annoying because after check in we had to walk all the way back to where we had started. But we got to the right hostel and realized it was right off of Grand Place. We dropped off our bags and walked through Grand Place, taking in the amazing buildings. Naturally, our first task was to find some Belgian waffles. Unfortunately, after eating the waffles and walking through the streets some more, we realized we had picked the overpriced place with not the greatest waffle- good, but not great. After waffles, we walked to find Mannekin Pis. For all his fame and glory, he is so small! We explored enough to work up another appetite for a good Belgian dinner (although at the time, we didn't exactly know what that meant). We both got a plate of mashed potatoes with carrots and onions mixed with sausage on top (similar to the English bangers and mash). It was so good. A friend of ours had told us about this bar in Brussels, Delirium, that has a ton of different kinds of beer but since we didn't know exactly where it was, we ended up finding the smaller version of the same place, Little Delirium, and sampled some of the beer.
Friday morning, we woke up to really explore Brussels. We checked out the Cathedrale des Saints Michele et Gudule, the Chocolate Museum, the Great Synagogue of Europe, and some things we randomly came across- Le Petit Sablon, the Egmont Palace, the Royal Music Conservatory, the Palace of Justice. We were hoping to go into the synagogue (to make up for the fact that we weren't celebrating Passover) but we were told that it wasn't open to the public. We were really disappointed. We lifted up our spirits after that by stopping at Fritland, a famous fries restaurant. I don't know what it is about these fries but they were amazing, especially with the aioli sauce I had with them. We went back to the hostel after that to rest for a while and get ready for dinner and heading to the real Delirium. We had a great Italian dinner and then found the bar. It was huge- three floors and packed with tourists. Even early in the night, which was a big change from the later scene of Barcelona.
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| Egmont Palace |
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| Le Petit Sablon |
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| Le Petit Sablon |
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| Royal Music Conservatory |
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| Great Synagogue of Europe |
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| Palace of Justice |
We started off Saturday early, too. We grabbed a train to Bruges, not really knowing what to expect. It turned out to be a really cute, picturesque town but sadly for us, it was another gray, gloomy day so probably not as pretty as it usually is. While in Bruges, we walked into one of the big buildings in the main area and happened to come across a wedding, which was fun. After a few more hours exploring Bruges, we headed back to Brussels. We went to the Royal Palace and experienced a few minutes of sunshine, a nice change. We got our last Belgian waffle of the trip and went back to Delirium to wrap up the trip.
Thanks for reading!
