I am so sad that my study abroad experience is halfway over! But at least I will be able to spend two more weeks in Europe when my family comes. After three weeks we were rewarded with a long weekend. Ten of us took a trip to Amsterdam and Brussels. Let me start off by saying, Amsterdam is as crazy as it is known for. All the stereotypes are true and we experienced it all. I have never seen a city with so much night life for young people. We arrived on Thursday and made it to our hostel (which looked like a green jail cell) then headed out to the city! The first thing that we noticed is that everyone speaks English! This was a little bit of a culture shock and we all spent at least the first night still saying Danke (thanks) and Entschuldigung (sorry/ exuse me) to people. We walked around the Dam Square where I bought too many souvenirs and then headed to a coffee shop before our Canal Cruise. It stopped raining just in time for our cruise and we even saw a rainbow! I didnt know that Amsterdam had canals so this was a great experience. We saw alot of the city and it helped us for future navigating.
After the cruise we went to a the oldest cafe in Amsterdam! It was beautiful and looked like something from a movie. Even Bill Clinton has been there. We got coffee and an apple tort that was amazing.
Other fantastic things that I did in Amsterdam include: Anne Frank House, a book fair, secret garden (behind the door below), I am amsterdam sign, and walking around the city at night. Yes, I even wandered through the Red Light District. Lets just say i am never going there again. Ever. Very sad.
On Saturday we headed to Brussels, Belgium. As soon as we got off the train we could smell the waffles and fries, no joke. We checked into our much nicer hostel and set out for the town. We went to a restaurant by LDs recommendation...holla! It was a very cute and delicious. This is where I got my Belgium Waffle, as seen below. There also were 1 Euro waffles sold on every street, which I didn't see until after I ate my 7 Euro waffle, Im just assuming it was more delicious since it was the only one I ate. We saw the first Godiva Chocolatier, the peeing boy statue (very odd, our group is still not sure why so many people want to see it) and walked around for a bit. Later that afternoon, Emily and I adventured to the northern part of town on our own. This was a huge accomplishment for us because were not forced to navigate until this point. We took a subway to Mini Europe and Atomium, but when we got there it had closed 30 min before. It was so sad, especially because Mini Europe was the only thing I had looked up about Brussels before we left. You can google it and see how cool it looks. After our failed attempt we decided to walk around a nearby park. It was beautiful and I took a lot of pictures, an afternoon is never wasted because Europe is so pretty!
Our night in Brussels was spent at a series of bars called Delirium Village. This place had over 2000 different beers to try and my personal favorite was Raspberry!! I think it was one of the best drinks I have ever tasted. I even kept the bottle because it still smells so good! Each bar was decorated differently and had a unique atmosphere. My first weekend out of Bonn was amazing and I am so glad to have spent it with my little group of 10! We even had matching knitted bracelets thanks to Briana, no big deal.
Auf Wiedersehen!
~Lauren
No comments:
Post a Comment