Amsterdam

After a great 36 hour solo trip in Belgium, I hopped on a train and arrived at the Amsterdam airport to meet my friend Lindsay, who had been traveling with her mom. (They went to Santorini, Greece and Lake Como, Italy--how cool is that?!) One quick but expensive cab ride later, we arrived at our adorable apartment via airbnb.com. It was so chic and right along a canal--not to mention that the owner, named 'Floor', left us a bottle of unopened prosecco to kick off the weekend when we arrived.

So, naturally, we enjoyed our bubbly out on the balcony and got settled in to the apartment before heading out for an evening of adventure. We were staying right next to the "Central Park" of Amsterdam, called Vondelpark. We enjoyed walking and biking through this park for the whole weekend. It had such a great energy, likely due to the uncharacteristically warm weather, and was filled with people having a great time Amsterdam style.

At the end of Vondelpark we arrived at the Rijksmuseum, obviously snapping some some pictures with the "I amsterdam" sign.

We then headed to the Van Gogh Museum, which was pretty amazing. I've really begun to enjoy museums more than ever throughout my year hear, and Impressionist/Post-Impressionist art is definitely my favorite (hence my favorite museums also including the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the Thyssen Museum in Madrid.) It was pretty cool to be surrounded by such famous, beautiful art.

We walked around a bit to get more of a feel of the center of the city. The city is so beautiful and definitely has a strong "hipster" vibe.

We found a place that served Dutch fare (surprisingly hard to stumble upon, because most of the restaurants serve international food), where I enjoyed some lamb and a Heineken! 

On Saturday we woke up and embarked on an excursion out to the Keukenhof Gardens. The Netherlands is known for its flowers/tulips, so we were excited to go to a huge park and fields full of them. It was the last weekend they were open, too, so we had pretty high expectations. When we arrived, however, we found out that all the fields were already dead, as were many of the plants in the park. It was a bit of a let down, but there were still plenty of tulips and other flowers throughout the park, so we still enjoyed ourselves.

Back in the city, we decided to head to the Heineken Experience. This part "factory tour" part museum, based all around the Dutch beer, is a must in Amsterdam. Lindsay and I enjoyed ourselves so much. It was probably my favorite thing we did all weekend. I had heard it was kind of cheesy, and it definitely was, but I think it only added to the fun. We learned about the history of the Heineken family/brand, the beer making process, and tried more than our fair share of beer (ie. the bartenders gave us extra...). 

We ended the night at a restaurant Floor (the owner of our airbnb apartment) recommended called Mata Hari, conveniently located in the Red Light District. Lindsay and I found the history behind the name of the restaurant interesting: Mata Hari was an exotic dancer from the Netherlands convicted of being a spy for Germany during WWI. She was executed by the French for her alleged crimes. Fitting for the Red Light District, I'd say, as well.  The walk to the restaurant allowed us to see just enough of the Red Light District to get the experience without spending too much time observing the activities that go on there (sex shows, prostitution...).

On Sunday morning, our last full day, we went to rent bikes at a bike shop by our apartment. Amsterdam is known to be one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world, and in our first two days there we had experienced that to be true. We tried to rent bikes on our first day, but they didn't have any left, so we decided that, even just for one day, we would go back and rent them.

We then rode our slick black bikes to a well known Dutch pancake restaurant. Even though we had access to free breakfast in our apartment, we couldn't resist the chance to try authentic Dutch pancakes. They were so delicious that we ended up going back the next day for our last meal in Amsterdam. Heavenly...

 

After breakfast we went to the Anne Frank House, which was a really surreal experience. We got to tour the house where Anne and her family hid during WWII and learn more about her and her story. We even saw her original diary and many entries from it. No pictures were allowed in the house, but it is an activity that I would strongly recommend to anyone who visits Amsterdam. 

We then walked around in the Jordaan area, the old city center that is very quintessential Amsterdam. From there, we rode our bikes to the flower market, also making a stop to buy some pesto cheese and wine to have a little picnic in Vondelpark. We jokingly referred to our pesto cheese as "weed cheese", because it looked a little "grassy." 

Earlier in the day, we read about a good Mexican place called Los Pilones in a tourist guide. Mexican food is far and few between in Spain and Europe--most of what you can find is "Tex-Mex", which is obviously similar, but we were missing some straight up Mexican food. Seems silly in Amsterdam, but their international food options were pretty extensive, so we decided to give it a go. 

We met up with the two Canadian girls I met in Belgium, Taylor and Kiera, and split the biggest pitcher of margaritas I've ever seen. I got fish tacos that were well worth the splurge. I didn't even know I liked Mexican food that much until I came to Spain and didn't have it as an option, but Los Pilones really hit the spot! 

For our last morning, we walked through Vondelpark to get pancakes once again and then took a long walk through the city center. We saw the outside of the Rembrandt House (where Rembrandt worked and painted in Amsterdam), walked through a flee market, on a love lock bridge, bought postcards, and soaked up every last minute of the gorgeous canals and architecture. 

It was the perfect way to end an awesome weekend in Amsterdam! I am so happy that Lindsay and I were able to reconnect after having lots of classes together at Libertyville High School. She has been such an awesome friend and adventure buddy throughout the semester, and I'm thankful that I get to continue to have her in my life at home! (Even though she's living in Madison this summer - waaah!)

Stay tuned for some more posts about Sevilla and my trip last weekend to Lisbon! 

Xoxo,

A

That time I traveled alone through Belgium...

A couple weeks ago now I embarked on my first official solo trip in Europe. Although I have done the "getting there" part of traveling alone countless times, I've always had someone I was meeting in any given destination. I had been hearing amazing things about Belgium throughout the past few months, so after my friend, Lindsay, and I made plans to meet in Amsterdam on Friday, May 16th, I realized that if I was going all that way, I might as well tack on a quick trip to Belgium.

Since Brussels is only about a 2 hour train ride away from Amsterdam, and I found I very cheap flight for Wednesday night, the 14th, I decided to go for it! I found a day trip that went to the two cities I'd been wanting to visit even more than Brussels--Bruges and Ghent. I figured that, since I was traveling alone, it would be all together less stressful and more fun to go with a tour group. 

So, after meticulously planning out every detail and printing out every piece of information/tickets I could possibly need, I left on Wednesday night on a direct Ryanair flight from Sevilla to Brussels. While in the air, I realized it was most likely my last Ryanair flight. I felt pretty accomplished. For those of you who don't know about Ryanair, it's an extremely low budget European airline. I started writing a blog post all about Ryanair that I will be posting within the next week. The title is in the works, but I think it's going to go something like "Thank you, Ryanair: A love/hate letter to the study abroad student's favorite airline." 

I got to my hotel in Brussels a bit after 11pm on Wednesday night, so I went right to sleep in preparation for my day trip that started at 8:30 the next morning. Turns out, I made an excellent decision to go with a tour group instead of completely by myself. On the bus on the way to our first stop, Ghent, I met two Canadian girls who are my age named Taylor and Kiera. We ended up spending the whole day together and meeting the next day for breakfast. Lindsay and I even met up with them a few days later in Amsterdam, since that was their next stop, too! 

Our first sight in Ghent was to Saint Bavo's Cathedral.

After fueling up with some tea with Taylor and Kiera, we joined the rest of the tour group for a walking tour through the city center. I was very impressed by our tour guide, who led our 60 person group in four different languages: English, Spanish, French, and Dutch. French and Dutch are the two primary languages spoken in Belgium--French in the South and Dutch in the North, where we were. In Brussels everything is totally bilingual, but in my observations it seemed a bit heavier on the French side.

After we finished seeing the beautiful architecture (including the castle above-wow!) that Ghent had to offer, we got back on the bus to head up to Bruges. I had heard several people rave about Bruges, so I have to be honest, I had pretty high expectations. My expectations were surpassed! It, along with Ghent, was one of the most unique places I've ever seen. The Flemish architecture is just so different than everything I've seen so far in Europe. I was so happy with my decision to tack on a trip to Belgium, and to make a day trip to Ghent and Bruges a part of it.

When we got to Bruges, we had some free time for lunch. Taylor, Kiera, and I had some soup and salad at a cafe and then did a little shopping before meeting our group for a canal boat cruise. Bruges has canals going through every corner you pass, so it was a wonderful way to see the city.

Our tour then headed to Our Lady's Church, where we saw on of Michelangelo's only works outside of Italy, the Madonna and Child. 

The rest of our time in Bruges consisted of lots of walking around, shopping, and checking out various chocolate shops. Belgian chocolate is pretty famous around the world, and, I must say, the real thing did NOT disappoint! I got a small box for myself and a larger box to take home to my host family, especially since my two new roommates who are here for a 4 week summer program were going to be there when I got back! (More on them in a future post, but we are getting along very well and are taking a little day excursion down to Cádiz tomorrow!)

After a 2.5ish hour bus ride back to my hotel in Brussels, I got ready for one of the experiences I was weirdly looking forward to: going out to a sit down dinner by myself. Seems like something a person (especially a people person like me) wouldn't exactly look forward to, but for me it was the ultimate experience of realizing how far I have come throughout the past year.

This year has been invaluable in terms of personal growth. Obviously my passion for the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures has been able to grow tremendously, but the biggest gain I will leave this whole experience with is greater independence, confidence, and overall fulfillment as a person. And for some reason, going out to a nice dinner by myself and enjoying it was something that made me realize how much I've grown. So, I put on some bright red lipstick, freshened up my curls, and went to a restaurant I found on Lonely Planet after doing a bit of a self-guided walking tour throughout the city center. 

I enjoyed some Belgian Leffe beer and the local specialty of beef stew with fries. I thought it was going to be a bit too heavy for me, but it was actually amazing and flavorful. The waiters kept me company throughout lots of the meal, and the rest of the time was mostly occupied with people watching from the window and thinking. The waiters were intrigued why such a young girl was all alone at a sit down dinner. I explained to them that I was meeting my friend the next day and decided to tack on a trip to their beautiful country. I think they liked my answer (or just me?), because they asked to take pictures with me. 

Thumbs up to an awesome dinner in Brussels!

The restaurant had a whole window filled with beautiful pies, so I decided to get one to go (since I was stuffed) and enjoy it in my fluffy hotel bed! I got a great night's sleep and checked out of my hotel in the morning before taking my stuff to meet my new Canadian friends at a waffle place I had read about online. I got a Leige waffle with cherries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was amazing, and made me wish I had one more morning in Belgium! I am insanely lucky to have gotten to try it at all, though, and to have had the opportunity to casually go to Belgium for 36 hours. 

And thus ended my time in Belgium! I boarded a 2 hour train to Amsterdam and arrived at the airport just in time to meet my friend Lindsay. We had an excellent four(ish) days in Amsterdam that I will be writing about later today! Slowly, slowly catching up.

<3 A

On an island in the sun

Well, my second week-long Spring Break is coming to a close, so it's finally time to get back to blogging. I have resolved that I am going to update my blog at least two days a week until I leave, but hopefully more. I will be heading home seven weeks from today! It seems like I have a lot of time left, because most people from my program have already left (since I am taking my classes with Spaniards, my semester is longer), but I bet I'm going to look back seven weeks from now marveled at how it all flew by. 

I started out my break with a trip to Mallorca with my two abroad besties Caela and Luisa. We had been looking forward to this trip for what seems like ages, so when it finally came last Thursday, we were pretty ready for a weekend of relaxing on the beach.

We arrived to Palma, Mallorca's capital and biggest city, on Thursday night. We headed over to our awesome airbnb apartment and then got a late dinner consisting of some delicious flatbread pizzas. 

After our first night of rest, we woke up and decided that since Friday was pretty cloudy and cool, we would make it a day of sight seeing around the city. We were all pretty impressed with Palma. It has a very "high end," trendy vibe. It is a huge travel destination for Germans, which was very apparent from our first night in Mallorca. 

Our first stop, after grabbing a light breakfast at a cool, "hipster" coffee shop, was the cathedral. The cathedral was huge and beautiful, with some artistic contributions from Gaudi. What made it unique from the hundreds of grand cathedrals around Europe, though, was that it is situated right next to the turquoise water of the Mediterranean. (The last picture in this post shows a view from the water)

We took some time to soak in the sun that peaked through the clouds for a while as we sat in between the cathedral and the sea. The rest of our day included lots of walking around the city, with stops at the Contemporary Art Museum and at a yummy tapas restaurant, where the highlight for all three of us was the mini hamburgers!

After another great dinner out at a champagne bar with lots of charcuterie plates, we rested up for our first day at the beach! On Saturday, we decided to take a little trip out to Cala Mayor, a beach just 20 minutes west of Palma. My amazing Spanish friend, Luisa, is always on top of things, and her Mallorca research did not dissapoint. Cala Mayor was just just incredible. The water was a clear turquoise with soft white sand. The company was very... European? There were lots of topless women and men in tiny speedos, but, hey, when in Mallorca?

On Saturday night we made a nice family dinner in our apartment--one of the many perks we enjoyed in our place! Although it was a bit more expensive than a hostel, it more than made up for it in what we saved making breakfast and packing lunches for the beach every day. We finished off a bottle and a half of wine and got some ice cream from the place on our street.

Sunday was our last full day in Mallorca, and we decided to take a farther excursion to Porto Cristo, a small village on the Eastern side of the island. The weather wasn't quite as nice as the day before, but we still enjoyed a long day at the beach with naps, books, and a picnic.

We also took some time to walk around the town a bit. There were lots of gorgeous homes and properties with views to die for...

We enjoyed a nice dinner out with more drinks and wine, of course, for our last night. I had another delicious flatbread pizza that I want to recreate some day. It had pancetta, a fried egg, lime, and more things that I'm trying to remember...

For our last day we did our very best to get up early to spend our last few hours at the beach before our flight at 4:30. We opted for the nearby Palma beach, which was only about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the city beach. It obviously provided a great background for some photos, which we took full advantage of. 

See the cathedral right there?

One Ryanair flight later, we were back in Sevilla and ready to take on a week of the Feria de Abril! I will be posting about Feria tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Buenas noches,
A

Ben Visit Part 2: Paris, La Ville De L'amour

I honestly think I've been putting off writing this because I'm having a hard time admitting to myself that my dream of a week in Sevilla & Paris with Ben is over. But as much as it makes me sad, I've really enjoyed looking back through the pictures and reliving the week that was, without a doubt, the best week I've spent with Ben since meeting him five years ago. 

As much as I can already tell how big of a cliche I sound like writing this, I must say... Paris really, really is such a romantic city. It's an obvious statement, I know, but let me just do my best to explain myself. First of all, it was a total dream come true that we were even able to go to Paris. It is not cheap, let me tell you. Thankfully, though, and with a little help from my wonderful parents, we were able to make it work. Thus, we really made sure to appreciate every moment of our four days there.

Here's where I get super cheesy... but you know what? I don't care. The entire ambiance of the city was just so romantic. The grand boulevards lined with quintessentially Parisian buildings, adorable cafes with tiny tables for two outside, beautifully green parks with mid-April's bright tulips, well-dressed locals carrying two baguettes in their bags as they walk home from work--those are just a few of the scenes that add to the ambiance that is unparalleled by any other city in the world. That's a pretty big claim, but I stand by it. I will never love a city as much as I love Paris. 

A romantic city like Paris isn't nearly as fun unless you have someone to share it with, and I couldn't have asked for a more amazing, happy guy to spend my time there with. We decided to make it a point not to rush around too much. I tend to have a million and one things I want to do and places I want to see, but with an impending "see you in 10 weeks" around the corner, I knew it was important to slow down and enjoy every minute I had with Ben in the city of love. (Ok, I'll do my best to tone down the cheese now.)

We got to our hotel in Paris on Wednesday around 7 after a smooth but long Ryanair flying experience. For those of you not familiar with Ryanair, it is an insanely cheap budget airline in Europe that always seems to fly to airports that are very far from the city they claim to serve. Our flight to "Paris" really went to Beauvais, France, which is over an hour outside of Paris. Getting to Paris involved taking a taxi from the airport to the train station, taking an hour and 15 minute train ride, and then taking another taxi to our hotel. It was definitely worth the price difference though, and we were still smiling by the time we got to our hotel.

The view from our hotel room

After getting settled in our hotel room and using the in-room Nespresso machine to recharge, we headed to dinner at a restaurant where I ate with my friend Kathleen when I was in Paris in November. It was a very memorable meal, so Ben insisted on giving it a try. It was a relatively short walk away from our hotel, so we decided to ditch the metro to enjoy our first Parisian sunset and check out the Champs-Élysées, one of the main boulevards in Paris. 

Our meal at Chez André was amazing. I think it was still my favorite dinner all week. We split a delicious endive salad, and then I had duck with caramelized peaches, and Ben had VEAL KIDNEY. Yes, Ben actually ate veal kidney. And he liked it. (Not sure if I should be proud of him for trying new things or grossed out, but I decided to be proud.) We split the creme brulee for dessert--my favorite!

When we got back to our hotel, we discovered that we could order our breakfast to our room free of charge. We filled out a form and were able to get as much as we wanted delivered to our room at the time of our choice. Needless to say, we ended up having breakfast in bed in our hotel robes and slippers every single morning, and those were some of my favorite moments all week.

First on the itinerary on Thursday was a picnic and anniversary celebration by the Eiffel Tower. We bought a bottle of wine at the cute wine shop across the street from our hotel and took the metro over to the Eiffel Tower. We found a sunny, grassy spot in the Champs de Mars park with an awesome view. We opened up the bottle of wine and read each others' cards. We had filled out these really cute memory books that I bought from Uncommon Goods and gave to Ben before I left. It was so cool to go back and laugh about things like our first impressions of each other and who/what we thought the other person would bring to a deserted island. 

We probably stayed there for over an hour and a half, and I can confidently say that it was one of the best individual moments of my life. I feel so lucky to have met Ben five years ago on a cruise in the Caribbean and to have spent the past four years dating him and growing up with him. Even though we had to post-pone our anniversary celebrations to about a month after the actual date, it was an absolutely perfect way to celebrate. (Okay, turns out I can't promise to end the cheese.)

Our anniversary gift to each other was a French wine tasting class, so after our picnic, we headed over to O Chateau for our class. We learned a lot about the different wine-producing regions in France, types of wine, and wine tasting techniques. We got to try one white wine, one rosé, and one red. They were all delicious, especially paired with some amazing cheese and bread. I tricked Ben in to eating blue cheese, because he claims to not like it but he's never really given it a try. Turns out, he likes blue cheese. ;)

The wine tasting class was in a very central location, so we were able to walk around and see lots of different places for the few hours that followed.

First, we went to the Love Lock Bridge, the Pont des Arts. We bought a lock and wrote our initials and the year on it, and then locked it on the bridge. It's pretty cool to see a bridge filled with so many love locks, and it's even cooler to know that our lock will stay there forever. Okay- until the French government inevitably cuts it off because the bridge is going to collapse. But it's the metaphor of it all that's important, right? 

We then walked around the Louvre, through the Tuileries Gardens, to the Longchamp store on Rue St. Honore to get me my first Longchamp bag, and to Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore. 

The final stop on our real whirlwind but absolutely wonderful day was for dinner at Au Pied de Cochon, a historical, well known restaurant that my BFF Cara had recommended. She told us we had to get the French onion soup, and it did not disappoint. Ben got what apparently is the restaurant's specialty: pig trotter. I was proud of him for being adventurous again, but I don't think it turned out quite as great as last time. He still liked it enough to finish it though, and we ended with a delicious banana chocolate tart. 

On Friday, we woke up to have another delicious breakfast in bed, and then we were off on a day trip to Versailles! Our hotel was very close to a major train station, so we were able to take a 30 minute train out to Versailles and then walk to the Chateau. We stopped on our way to the Palace to get some picnic ingredients of course, including sandwiches, macarons, and a bottle of wine. 

We started our day picnicking in the gardens, which are MASSIVE. I could have spent an entire day just in the gardens there. Our picnic was lovely, and, to my surprise, it turns out that Ben likes macarons. He very rarely will eat sweets with me, and when he does it's usually some variation of chocolate cake, so I was really excited. 

Once we finished our bottle of wine, we walked around the gardens for about two hours. We had so much fun walking around the gardens. It was another one of my favorite moments of the week (and, therefore, of my life.) We laughed a lot and took so many pictures. We were both just so happy to be together in one of the most incredible places we'd both ever seen. 

Yeah, we really had that much fun. I would have loved to keep walking around the gardens, but we needed to get in line to make sure we had enough time to explore the palace before it closed at 6. We waited in an hour-long line to get in, and spent another 1.5-2 hours touring the palace. Each room was so grand and elaborate, but my favorite was definitely the Hall of Mirrors. 

Hall of Mirrors

We got back before 8:00 and quickly recharged with some Nespresso before heading over to the Marais area to walk around a bit and get some dinner. We ended up at a cool, modern place we had spotted the night before called Loup Brasserie. I had cod and Ben had a burger with bacon, and then we shared an Earl Grey cream for dessert that was amazing!

On Saturday I woke up with a pit in my stomach thinking about how it was our last day in Paris. The past few days had just flown by, and I really couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I had less than 24 hours left with Ben until the end of June. I did my best to try to stop thinking him leaving and just enjoy the time I did have with him that day.

We started by heading to the Eiffel Tower to go to the top. It was number one on my list, since I hadn't done it the last time I was in Paris, so we woke up early and went to get in line not long after it opened. We had read tips online that said if you wait in line to take the stairs it is a much shorter wait. Well, I can't imagine how long the wait for the elevator was, because we ended up waiting two hours to take the nearly 700 steps up! It was well worth it, though, for both the views and the memories walking up.

When we were done checking out the different levels within the Eiffel Tower, we walked around the area to find something to eat for our last picnic. We found some delicious sandwiches and a lemon tart, and we, of course, bought a bottle of wine. We found a great spot in the same park we had our picnic the first day. The weather wasn't nearly as nice, but we still had a great time soaking it all in for our last day.

After some funny post-bottle of wine Eiffel Tower pics, we went back to the hotel to warm up a bit and figure out what we were doing next. We ended up walking from the hotel to Galeries Lafayette, a big, fancy Parisian department store. 

While in Galeries Lafayette, we stopped and bought some macarons for later at the famous Pierre Herme. We got two salted caramel chocolate macarons and one lemon macaron. We ate them later at the hotel and they were all they're built up to be! We walked around on various floors of Galeries Lafayette and bought some cool postcards. 

We then walked around a bit in the area looking for the perfect dinner spot for our last meal together. We ended up at Triadou Haussmann, and it was a very great steak meal for both of us! 

Well, this has been quite a long blog post, but it is well-deserved after a trip full of amazing memories. Leaving Ben in the morning was extremely hard, and I still don't quite feel like myself four days later. I am so thankful that he has been insanely supportive of my crazy dreams throughout the past year, though. 

If you made it to the end of this post, THANK YOU! Next up on my blog, Ben is going to do a GUEST POST! I can't wait--he is a pretty great writer. 

Au revoir for now! I am off to Madrid in seven hours--eek!

A