belgian chocolate and french.. pizza

Bonjour! Hope you’re all doing well! So we took a couple weekend off from traveling to save money, so I haven’t had much to write about lately. We just hung out in Maastricht, which involved such adventures as running (literally, running) to the bar to make it before happy hour ended – this was as much a high point as it was a low haha, also eatings LOTS of Nora’s pizza (not sure if I’ve written about this place.. it is THE place for cheap, fast pizza. so good), and celebrating a friend’s birthday at our favorite bar. But the past two weekends we’ve gone places, so I’ll catch you guys up

Not last weekend but the one before (July 9-12 I think) we went to Belgium and Paris! On that Thursday, McCall, Margaret and I headed to Bruges, which is  an adorable little town in Belgium. We did some shopping and picture-taking for a couple hours before Margaret met up with another friend. McCall and I had the day to do what we wanted, so what did we do…? Chocolate Museum of course! (Lauren you would’ve been in heaven!!) The first part of the museum was just history of chocolate blah blah blah, but THEN we got the section with chocolate sculptures! It was so awesome. How could you not have a good time in a room full of chocolate people and animals? They even had one of Obama!! Then we saw a chocolate-making live demonstration. We felt  pretty cool packed in there with a bunch of 10-12 year olds haha. They passed around a bag of chocolates at the front and McCall and I may or may not have pushed our way to the front to get in on that! No children were hurt (badly), don’t worry. So after that we just did some more walking around town. I bought an enormous bottle of Chimay, my new favorite beer, and we had the most delicious kebab ever for dinner. Then more walking, enjoying the weather. I’ve found that’s really the best way to experience a new place. It’s cool to do the touristy stuff just to say you’ve done it, but I much prefer to experience a place like a  local would.

So at the end of the day, McCall and I hopped on a train to Brussels, where her friend Thomas (he’s a student at Baylor but lives in Belgium.. very convenient!) and another guy Charles (lives in Paris, studied at Baylor for a semester. again, convenient!) came to pick us up and brought us back to Thomas’ house outside Brussels. Actually, I guess I didn’t mention it but we had visited Thomas a weekend or two before that for a couple nights. Basic  summary of that trip: went to some famous bar called Delirium in Brussels, tried Absinthe (ew), next day shopped in Antwerp, left the following morning. I don’t have many pictures and we really weren’t there that long. But anyway Thomas is the nicest guy ever and his parents invited us to stay at their house any time we like, hence the 2nd trip. SO, back to this trip. So we got to Thomas’, hung around for a while, got dressed, and headed out with the boys plus their Belgian friend Massimo (they have the coolest names here) to downtown Brussels. Downtown Brussels is so pretty at night! After the guys nearly got into a fist fight with the parking garage attendant, we finally get to the club and hang out there for the night. So we get home really late (well..early) and are dreading the 8am train ride we reserved to Paris the next morning. But then Charles has the brilliant idea to offer us a ride because he’s going home the next day anyway! Yay! So we get to sleep in a few extra hours and finally start heading to Paris early afternoon.

After like a three or so hour drive, we finally get to Paris, check in to our hotel, and get back in Charles’ car to tour the city. Lucky for us, he actually works in the summer as a tour guide haha, so we got our own private, very thorough tour of Paris. We saw everything! And it didn’t take all day because we were in the car. We went by the Eiffel Tower of course, the Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Elysees, the Louvre (sadly just from the outside), and Notre Dame to name the highlights. After our lovely tour, we had dinner at a restaurant called Indiana, which according to Charles had the most amazing American burgers. So naturally we HAD to try them. Delish! I mean they don’t even touch the level of amazingness of home-grilled burgers, but for a restaurant in Paris, I was pretty dang impressed! After that we walked around a little more, saw Notre Dame at night, learned that it is totally normal in Paris for people to hang out in the streets like bums even if you have lots of money. Still not sure about that one. After that we realized it was getting late so we raced to the Eiffel Tower to see it light up at midnight! It was so beautiful. By far the best thing about Paris. It’s too bad we weren’t there for their July 14th Bastille Day which is like our 4th of July, because the whole tower shoots fireworks all night long. So once we saw the light show, Charles dropped us back off at our hotel for a good, full night’s sleep. We woke up the next morning and headed toward the train station (we’ve learned over time that this is the best way NOT to miss your train) and did some more walking around. We ate at this cute little restaurant for lunch. Ironically I had a really good pizza there haha. It’s funny, I feel like in the states you have to go out of your way to find a restaurant that has a good patio to sit on, but here it’s very unusual to find a restaurant that doesn’t have most of its seats out front facing the street. Everything is centered around taking your time (especially in France), and enjoying being outside and others’ company. Makes sense to me!

So that was the end of that weekend. Class as usual the following week. Blah. Final exams are this week though! It’ll be SO nice to be done with everything so I can enjoy the real reason I came here – traveling!

Last weekend we went to Prague. Sooo much fun! I’ll write about that next

 

canals, holocaust history, and enough beer to last a lifetime

Hello everyone! It’s been awhile since my last post. Sorry about that! I literally just got all of my pictures from everyone else together. So it’s been, what, a little over a month already? Man at first it seemed like time was craaawwling and now it’s flying by so fast! I’m trying my best to soak up every minute of it. I don’t want to forget a thing!

So where did I leave off? I think the last thing I talked about was the Italy trip. Just FYI, I added some really beautiful pictures of Switzerland to my first album on Facebook, so if you get a chance you should definitely check them out. For those of you not on Facebook, I’ll probably make a post on here of my favorite pictures so far so that you don’t miss it. We had lunch at the top of a mountain and stayed in a hotel in Montreux overlooking Lake Geneva. Switzerland is still the most striking place I’ve visited thus far. However, my favorite place as far as the most beautiful AND fun is definitely Germany. Seriously guys, I might move there.

But let me go in order. The weekend after we got back from Italy, my two girlfriends and I took a day trip to Amsterdam. Let me preface by saying, yes, it is exactly like they say it is. Lots of sex shops, “coffee shops”, and general public debauchery. Don’t worry, we steered clear, I promise. We got there before noon and hopped on a canal boat tour. Best 10 euro we could’ve spent! It was a really pretty day and we got to see most of the city without having to walk aimlessly trying to find our own way around. We passed the Anne Frank Museum so that was kind of cool to see, even if it was only the outside haha. After that we really just spent the day walking around town, trying our best not to get lost among the never-ending canals and side streets. We stopped for a drink at a little cafe and drank the most delicious sangria, then ate dinner at a place called New York Pizza (silly Americans we are). And then headed home before it got dark! All in all it was a nice, albeit touristy, day. We plan on going back toward the end of the summer to check out the night life.

The rest of that weekend we spent back in Maastricht working on homework during the day and going out at night. I may have already mentioned it but there’s a bar called the Highlander that EVERYone goes to for some reason. It’s close and cheap so I suppose that would explain it. But that’s typically where we are on any given night. I could do a whole post just with pictures from there haha.

So then we had a full week of classes. Nothing exciting there. The next weekend (last weekend) my roommate McCall, our friends Margaret, Alex, and Natalie, and myself went to Germany. We left (and by “left” I mean “ran as fast as we could to the train station from class”) on Thursday afternoon and took the train to Berlin. We didn’t get there until after dark so we checked into our hostel and went out for a quiet dinner at a – get this – Mexican restaurant! I got nachos and they were delicious, though nothing like what you’d find in Texas. No beans! Those crazy Germans and their Mexican food.. Anyway, we went to bed early that night and woke up early the next morning to tour the city. The weather the next day was absolutely awful – rainy, windy, and no warmer than 55 degrees. And us being the ever-underprepared Americans that we are, we had sandals and thin jackets on the whole day. Awesome. So to be honest, I don’t remember a lot of the names of what we saw. We saw the Berlin wall of course. But the thing that stood out most was the Topography of Terror outdoor museum. It’s set up where the Gestapo headquarters used to be during WWII, and it was basically a recount of the events that took place over the course of the war from the German perspective. There were lots of blown-up pictures of Hitler and his advisors and all that. Definitely a little more real to see it up close and in the actual place it all happened. We also saw the Bebelplatz, or book burning square, which was the site where Nazi youth groups and members of the SA burned over 20,000  books. There was a glass window on the ground looking down to empty bookshelves as a commemoration of the burning. Other than that though, it was just a lot of walking around in the rain haha.

So that night, instead of paying for the hostel again and leaving really early only to lose 5 hours of daylight getting to Munich, we took a night train and woke up the next morning at 6 already IN Munich. Very convenient. What was not convenient, however, was not being allowed to check in to our hostel until 2pm. We did a lot of wandering, talking, and gelato-eating in that time. Once we finally checked in, 3 of the girls went and visited the concentration camp Dachau. McCall and I were kinda burned out on tours by that point so we stayed back and had a girl’s day of shopping and walking around town. When the other 3 got back, we got ready and headed to the Hofbrauhaus (famous German beer hall and brewery) for dinner. Some locals told us it wasn’t worth going there and that it was too touristy but I don’t know what the heck they were talking about because we had a blast and ate the most delicious food! We spent a good couple hours there trying to finish our dinner of brats, sauerkraut, potatoes, pretzels, and beer. Sooo good! After letting our food go down, we walked around a bit before getting invited by an entire German soccer team to a club (Or disco as they call it here. I still think that’s awkward though) so we spent the rest of the night and most of the morning there haha. Don’t worry fam, I’m not going party crazy over here. Just a couple drinks and lots of dancing. Even if you don’t drink at all, people don’t go out til after midnight and come home til at least 4 or 5. It’s just their culture, so I thought I’d indulge So the next morning we did some more shopping, walking, eating, all my favorite things, and then headed back to Maastricht for classes on Monday!

Phew that was another long one. I really am going to start updating more often so these things are shorter. Congrats if you’re still reading. Until next time, I love and miss you all!

New Facebook albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2255580&id=9222605&l=1944a6e2a1

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2255582&id=9222605&l=d24a125219

 

oh yeah, i’m taking classes too..

Hey againnn. I don’t have a whole lot to update because I want to save it until I have all the pictures from the last week or so. Since I travel everywhere with the same people, we trade off bringing a camera so that we don’t have 12 of the same thing, but I have yet to put all of those on my computer. Soon! I have pictures from our day trip to Amsterdam and various weeknight adventures here in Maastricht.

Other than that, I’ve just been going to class during the day. I actually really like most of my classes. I’m taking Dutch Art History. Our professor is Dutch and adorable and tiny and she lovesss to spend 30 minutes talking about one part of one painting or asking us who our favorite artists are. The only problem is she closees the curtains and turns the lights off for class, and while we’re supposed to be analyzing Rogier van der Weyden’s “Descent from the Cross”, most of us are struggling just to keep our eyes open. Note to self: darkness not conducive to learning.

I’m also taking a class called Intercultural Philosophy and Communication. Also with a Dutch professor, but he’ engages us in conversation (and keeps the blinds open) so it’s easier to pay attention in his class. The material is actually really interesting. So far we’ve briefly covered East Asian philosophy including Confucianism and Daoism and it’s on to early Buddhism this afternoon. This class makes me feel like I’m at least trying to be cultured haha.

The last class I’m taking is World History with a Baylor professor who is also the program director. He’s an amazing teacher and really easy to listen to. I’m not a huge fan of history but his class is actually kind of fun.

I’m also taking a Political Science independent study but we don’t go to class for it and it’s a waste of time and a stupid requirement for Baylor.

The two classes taught by Dutch profs are at the University of Maastricht which is a 30 minute walk away (no fun) but we got bikes the other day to use for the summer! I’ll probably put pictures up of me on it because they’re so much fun and soo much easier than walking. It’s ridiculous, EVERYONE here rides a bike. In fact, I think someone told me there are twice as many bikes as cars on the road in Europe. But seriously you’ll see 85 year old ladies out there on their bike and groceries in their little basket, or you’ll see cute 20-something girls in their skirts and heels like it’s just no big deal to get dressed up and hop on your bike! Definitely a little different.

Anyway this is a boring post but I felt obligated to mention my classes since I am technically “studying” abroad haha. I’m headed off to philosophy now. Pictures soon!

 

italia

So once we got back from the group trip, we had 5 days of free travel time before classes started. So me, my roommate McCall, and my friends Margaret, Charlie, and Bryan all decided we’d go to Italy for those 4 nights. Getting there was half the battle it seemed. We arrived in Maastricht later than expected after our group trip, and we had already made arrangements to take  a train at a specific time, otherwise we’d have to wait until the next day and we’d lose like 12 hours. So it was very important that we make this train. We arrive in Maastricht, and our group of 5 had about 30 minutes total to shower (trust me, this was a necessity), change, unpack and repack our clothes, and get to the station. Needless to say, it was a mad dash but we made it just in time, which by the way will become a trend with our group as time goes on.. Anyway, we get on the train, have a couple connections, and finally make it to the overnight train in hopes of getting some sleep!

Well, we did sleep, but unfortunately one person didn’t – whoever decided to steal Charlie’s laptop from out of our cabin while we were fast asleep! Creepy! But don’t feel too bad for him, his parents bought him a new one and it will be shipped to Maastricht any day now. But that put us a little on edge. We made it the rest of the way alright, and got off in Milan for our first stop. Milan in short: not worth seeing. Apparently we missed the couple of cool things there, but what we saw was construction, no a/c, creepy people, and expensive food and drinks. I don’t even have any pictures from there because we spent the whole time deciding and arranging what we were going to do next.

So we woke up early the next morning (drenched in sweat, ugh) and hopped back on the train toward Florence. The thing about trains in Italy though, is that you have to pay to reserve a seat almost every time. That’s 15 euro every single time you want to leave a city. It gets expensive, but it’s one of those things you kind of just have to grin and bear. So we get to Florence, and immediately it kicks Milan’s butt. It was so pretty and everything looked ancient and important.

Our hostel was kind of out of the way, but it was really really cool so we didn’t mind. It was kind of catered especially for students traveling, so any questions we had or suggestions we needed were easily accessible there. Plus the place looked like some Italian villa out of a movie with its orange stained stucco walls and tall, always-open windows. Like many places I’ve encountered thus far, it felt like I was in a postcard. So that first day and evening we mostly napped and took it easy.  We got up early the next day, brought a sack lunch, and headed for the town center. We spent the day visiting the Uffizi gallery, which houses some of the most famous paintings in the world, many of which I studied in school. Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus” and “Spring” were both there, along with Madonna and Child altarpieces by Cimabue and Giotto. Those were my favorites anyway. We walked around the square for the rest of the day. The weather was gorgeous – sunny with a slight breeze. We had lunch and gelato on some museum steps with a recreation of David at our side.

Once the sun started to go down, we headed back to the hostel to change so we could get back into town to watch the soccer final (I mean futbol) between Barcelona and Manchester United. Apparently this is a big deal haha because originally we tried to stay in Rome that night and there were ZERO hostels available. So we get back to town, have a lovely dinner outdoors and then walk a couple blocks to an Irish pub, find a table and wait for the game to start. The room fills really quickly, and by the time the game starts, people are packed in there shoulder to shoulder. The game is pretty exciting if you like sports (haha yall know me..) – people are jumping around, yelling obsceneties, spilling beer. It’s a good time. Barcelona wins! I pretend to be excited about sports (kind of a stretch..) and we head home. The next morning, the girls go back to Maastricht early to get a head start on homework, and the guys and I booked a hostel in Rome for the next 2 nights.

Ok this is getting long, my apologies. I’ll be quick. So the 3 of  us went to Rome, found an amazing hostel right by the metro and the train station, saw ALL of Rome in 2 days (Colosseum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Vatican Museum including the Sistene Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica. Oh and the fanciest McDonald’s I’ve ever seen in my life. I think it’s one of the 7 wonders in fact), and had a great 2nd night there at a bar that happened to be the location of a bachelorette party. Lots and lots of fun.Check out Facebook for pictures of that night. Below are some pictures from around Rome. Facebook has the full-size versions!

The trip back was crazyy. We missed a train and had to try and find another train home, and stumbled upon another group from Baylor in the same situation, so we traveled home together, sleeping in the dining cars of trains because all the seats were taken! We got home exhausted and broke but we had an amazing time that I’ll never forget. School started the next day and so now I’m trying to get into that routtine. We went to Amsterdam for a day on Saturday though so I’ll write about that in my next entry. In the meantime, definitely check out those links I put in my last post. I don’t want to put all the same pictures up on here that are already there. Talk to yall again soon!!

 

it’s only been 2 weeks?!

Hello all! I apologize for the delay. I’ve had so little time to sit and write, especially on here because internet access seems to be somewhat elusive. There’s not wireless on every street corner like in the states! (There is a McDonald’s though.. good or bad?)

Anyway, I know this is going to be an enormous post because I have soooo much to tell! I might actually break it up into sections. But after today I’ll try and write in here after every weekend of travel. I could write about my days in class but who wants to hear about that?

SO. First days in Maastricht. We arrive at the place we’ll be living, called the Teikyo complex. It used to be a hospital, but part of it has been converted to dorms for international students. So I live on the same hall with Baylor students, and the halls on either side of me are filled with other students – some from Michigan, some from NewYork, some from other continents. My roommate’s name is McCall. We’ve known each other for a couple years so there’s none of that awkward getting to know each other phase. Our room is huge, and the town is beautiful. Very clean, safe, quaint. Kind of like a European version of Boerne. Needless to say, we are all very pleased.

A couple days later, we leave for our group trip. There is entirely too much to explain so I’ll be brief. We went through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and I think Liechtenstein and Luxembourg at some point in there. Every single place we saw was INCREDIBLE. Our first night was spent in Rothenburg, Germany. This is the most adorable little town I’ve ever seen, and I’m determined to go back before the summer is over.

It’s the quintessential small German town, complete with authentic  German restaurants (I had schnitzel, au gratin potatoes, and a fair share of beer),

cobblestone streets (though these are everywhere in Europe of course), and lots and lots of beer steins for sale in the shop windows.

The Torture Museum was also there. The pictures should say it all for you. Pretty interesting. In order: torture chair, executioner’s swords, iron maiden, chastity belt.

The only thing I can say I wasn’t happy about over the course of the whole trip was that Switzerland uses the Franc instead of the Euro. You can pay in Euros, but they give you Francs for change. This is very frustrating when all you have are big bills and are only in Switzerland for 2 days. No one wants to carry around large amounts of useless money. But the country redeemed itself by being the most beautiful. Germany and Austria were green, with rolling hills and farms, but Switzerland was much more dramatic with its majestic mountain ranges and crystal waters; even the people there were beautiful. Because the group trip was part of our program cost, we were fortunate enough to stay in very nice hotels the whole time. For example, our hotel room in Switzerland was on the 12th floor with a balcony overlooking Lake Geneva (no big deal right?). In Switzerland we also took a trolley up the side of a mountain (it had to be a 45 degree incline the whole way up), all the while looking out at the gorgeous lake and the town below. When we got to the top, we had a 3 course meal arranged for us on the patio of a restaurant that overlooked the lake thousand of feet below. I felt like I was in a postcard.

Needless to say, those 5 days were unforgettable, and pictures don’t even do justice to how unbelievable it is here. My next post will be about my trip to Italy with a group of 4 other people. So much fun! But unfortunately I have a little thing called class that I’m supposed to attend… I’ll be riding my bike in town for the first time so wish me luck! I love and miss you all terribly!

P.S. I DON’T HAVE ALL THE PICTURES UP YET, CHECK BACK SOON AND THERE WILL BE MORE! IN THE MEANTIME, CLICK THESE LINKS TO SEE MORE PICS.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2250630&id=9222605&l=5dcc587714

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preparation

So I thought I’d begin writing here before I even leave, because there are so many things going on NOW related to this trip. For the longest time, leaving for the Netherlands seemed like such a distant thing, months away. But now that I have less than a month before I leave, it’s suddenly dawned on me that I should maybe get some things in order!

I have to prepare in so many ways. Obviously, I’ll need to pack at some point. I don’t even want to think about that yet. I’m also in the process of preparing for when I return. Registering for fall classes, signing a lease on an apartment, making sure my finances are in order, etc. But lastly, and probably most importantly, I’m preparing mentally for this trip. I need to make sure I’m in the right mindset for this whole thing. I want to go into this with peace of mind that everything is in order and taken care of, not freaking out that I forgot to do something. I want to be excited and anxious but responsible and realistic. And I want to go into this with an open mind for whatever I happen to learn or experience during the three months I spend over there.

For the time being, I have been a model tourist-to-be by trying to get a feel for the culture and customs and all that with this little book my dad got me. I’m going to do my best and not whip it out when I’m actually over there, except in the privacy of my own room or in the company of other Americans who have no idea what they’re doing. Or maybe I’ll just go all out and get myself a fanny-pack and a strap to hang my camera around my neck with. I’ll even wear socks with my sandals!

 

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