Tag Archives: Europe

Mi Corazon esta en Barcelona (My Heart is in Barcelona)

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Words can’t describe the feeling I have for Spain. Barcelona or Madrid. Spain will always hold a piece of my heart.  This trip especially.

From the beginning, I told myself I cannot fall in love with Barcelona.  My sister would kill me because it is not Madrid. But I cannot deny the fact that Barcelona has completely blindsighted me and stole my whole heart.

From the moment the trip started to the time I was back in my small room in Leiden. It was just perfection.  I mean, I can’t complain because I was with all my friends in a country I love.  What more could I ask for?

The trip started early Friday morning. Two thirty in the morning to be exact.  I had no sleep and was running off of coffee and fumes.  The plane ride was an experience. It was early in the morning and I had the pleasure of watching the sun rise while I was on my way to Spain.

We finally landed in Spain and found our way to our hostel.  From seeing the first sights of Barcelona, I knew that it would be hard not to fall in love.  The feeling I had being back in Spain was such a comfortable feeling.

When I had gone there two years ago, my spanish was not at all sufficient.  Coming back after two years, I really felt accomplished.  I was communicating and understanding it all.  I was asking directions, ordering food, having conversations with locals.  It felt so incredible to be able to speak another language.  And being in Spain felt even more incredible. It just felt like I fit.

We began our day with lunch.  All I dreamed of since booking my ticket to Barcelona was ordering my first jamon y queso y cafe con leche (ham and cheese and coffee and milk). The first day that we were there we did a walking tour of the city.  It is an incredible way to see some of the best sights of Barcelona.  We saw La Cathedral de Barcelona (Barcelona’s cathedral), the Born (Shopping district), the Gothic Quarter, and so much more. We walked the steps where Christopher Columbus decided he was going to trek to the great Americas.  We saw the ruins of Barcelona, along with the palace of the old monarchy.  We ended the tour at the Arco del Triunfo (Arc of Triumph). Yes, there is one very similar in the famous Paris. This one is kind of like a twin.  We walked up and down the streets, in various parks, simply marveling at everything.

It was so surreal to be in Spain! Everyday felt like a dream and it just kept getting better.

By the evening, I had been up for over 36 hours and I was fading fast. We went back to our hostel, had a quick nap and then we went to see a light show.  The light show was basically a huge fountain that they put a water and light show on for the public.  It was such a magical feeling sitting on the stairs, watching this light show, and seeing the city of Barcelona in front of you.

After the light show, we headed to the port of Barcelona to indulge in some traditional Spanish food and drinks. We ate paella de mariscos (A traditional spanish dish with seafood), patatas bravas (fried potatoes with a spicy sauce), and of course sangria. I ate everything on my plate and it was the best feeling in the whole world to be eating paella and drinking sangria right next to the sea.

The next day, we woke up early, got some breakfast and headed to La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia is a church in Barcelona.  It was created by the famous artist Gaudi.  Gaudi’s artwork can be seen all throughout Barcelona.  He was known for his creative architecture that is incredibly different from the other gothic features in Barcelona.

After we ate a small snack, we found our way to Gaudi’s park, Park Güell.  This is the park that Gaudi designed and it is in the highest spot of Barcelona.  We hiked our way up, which felt like hours upon hours.  It was as if we were walking parallel to the mountain, but we eventually made it.

We spent a few hours in the park, just soaking up as much as it as we could.  We hiked to the tallest peak we could find and just sat and looked out at Barcelona below.  We could see everything.  The sea, the Cathedral de Barcelona, La Sagrada Familia.  All the sights we had seen the day before, we were looking at from above the city.

Every moment of the trip had just been breathtaking and looking out over Barcelona was even more breathtaking.

After the park, we ate some lunch and made of our way back to our hostel to rest before we went out at night.  That night we went to a bar called Le Cyrano.  It was honestly the most unique bar I have been too. You payed three euros for a drink.  The bartender then gave you the bottle of alcohol with a glass and you were free to fill it up as much as you liked. Another cool thing about the bar was how they gave you free popcorn with the drinks.  Your table got a large bag of popcorn and you got to enjoy your highly alcoholic drink.  It was absolutely genius.  Safe to say, it was a great night, with great company, at an even greater place.

The next day, we decided, would be our beach day.  Before we walked to the beach, eating some churros con chocolate was a necessary thing.  Every morning, my goal was to get cafe con leche and eat something new.  And I accomplished that goal.

On our way to the beach, we stopped at a supermercado (supermarket) and bought jamon (ham), queso (cheese), pan (bread) and of course, sangria.  As soon as we got to the beach, my heart was full of joy.  I honestly cannot describe the feeling I had seeing the Mediterranean.  Just seeing the water, the waves, and the sunset in the distance made me feel so infinite.

We sat on the beach for hours, enjoying each others company, eating our food, and drinking our sangria.

I’m not going to lie, my eyes did swell up with tears first seeing the beach.  It was just an enchanting day and I didn’t want it to be over.

After the beach, we went to a small tapas restaurant (traditional spanish appetizers) and I had finally got to eat tortilla espanola (spanish omelet). Which I had been dreaming about since I knew I was traveling to Spain.  It was a wonderful way to end one of the best days in Barcelona.

On our last day in Barcelona, we spent it eating and shopping. We then made our way to Las Ramblas (a famous shopping district). We found ourselves at the entrance of an open-air market. (It was like El Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid). I wish we would have found this place earlier because it was miraculous.  It had so much fresh fruit, fish, bread, anything you could have imagined. I bought myself ice cream and some fresh frutilla (strawberries).

We walked along Las Ramblas and then decided to have one last spanish meal before we boarded the bus back to the airport.  I had my last spanish sangria and it was the best so far.

Boarding the plane, I couldn’t help but feel bittersweet.  Being in Spain made me feel so fortunate.  As the plane took off, I could’t help but start crying (yes, I was one of those people).  I had just experienced one of the best weekends of my life. And as much as I didn’t want it to happen and I tried to stop it from happening, Barcelona completely and incandescently stole my heart.  Every street, sign, person, food, the language. It all just captivated me and I fell in love.

If I had not felt fortunate before that moment, I did at that time.  It was something I will ever forget. I was in a plane, leaving Barcelona, after one of the most incredible weekends of my life.

My heart was full. Although it felt so nice to be back in my bed in Leiden, I already missed the sun. I missed the beach, the warm weather (I didn’t wear a coat the whole time! I had 60 degree weather!), the food, speaking spanish. I missed everything and I had not even be gone 4 hours.

All I could feel after that weekend was just happiness. My heart was so full in that moment and it still is! Spain, for some reason, felt like home.  I left a piece of my heart in Barcelona, and I know some time in the future I will go back and it will captivate me even more. I don’t know why or how, but it has made both me and my sister fall in love.  And when I go back, which I know I will, it will be even more magical and feel even more like home to me.

Mi corazón se quede en Barcelona.  Dejé todo mi corazón en España y voy a volver a recibirlo.  Este país es lo mas mágico. España y el idioma siempre estarán en mi vida.  No puedo esperar por la día que vuelvo.  Hasta luego España.  Te extrañare! Mando muchos besos.

One Month is Here!

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It’s coming down to the one month mark.  I’ve been here almost one month and this place already feels like my home away from home. Even though there have been struggles, adjusting hasn’t been that difficult. I’m still getting used to the little things; sharing a room with two people, realizing how fast money disappears, trying not to cry and call home every time something goes wrong.  I really have adjusted quite well. Yes, I miss home, but every time I feel homesick I just have to tell myself that I am studying in Europe, living on another continent, traveling the world, and experiencing so much.  That out ways any negative experience I have had.

I have made some of the most incredible friends since I’ve been here. We have become a small family and it makes dealing with homesickness easier knowing I have people that I can spend time with that are like my family.  It doesn’t do my mom’s home cooking or being able to see my brother or my sister justice, but having my friends has helped.

The past few weeks have been filled with fun. We have tried dutch pancakes. Different from American pancakes, but still do not lack in taste.  My daily diet includes peanut butter, which is actually a lot better than American peanut butter, Nutella and pasta.  Can’t complain, but it would be nice to have some real good cooking and not spend all of my money on that.  I guess in the end, I would rather travel as much as I can and eat peanut butter and Nutella.

Sophia, Emily and I finally moved into our triple room.  The room is huge, but the bathroom is smaller than an airplane bathroom. Our whole bathroom including the sink, toilette and shower is about my arms span long and a foot and a half wide.  Taking a shower is definitely a vigorous process. You can tell how frustrating it is because when someone is in the shower, you hear many curse words and elbows hitting the wall or accidentally turning off the water while you’re trying to shampoo your hair.  It’s quite an event.

In the month here we have met so many people from so many different places in the world.  It’s so nice to learn about all the different cultures from all over the world and then to see how interested people are in your culture.

The past few weeks we have been relaxing and enjoying Leiden. One night, we all were feeling a little exhausted and home sick and decided to have a movie night.  We made popcorn, ate chocolate, drank wine. It was the ultimate girls night.  Something I think we all needed to overcome our cases of homesickness.

I know everyone is dying to hear about classes, those are the least excited part yet.  I only have class three days a week and they all are in the late afternoon.  I thought to myself the other day about how I have yet to set and alarm for classes. It really is the most glorious feeling in the whole world to sleep, wake up whenever, and then get ready for class. It might be very difficult to come back to the states and have to actually work and wake up early.

Every time I’ve ever doubted my choice about coming here walking outside my door and looking at the view out of my window makes all those doubts go away. The past weeks have included school, which is pretty torturous, and planning trip after trip. I have almost spent all of my savings planning trips, but I know that it is completely worth it all.  After this week, we head to Barcelona, then Ireland, then we are off to Vienna and after that it’s spring break.  My time here will be almost half way over.  It’s bittersweet to already think about, so I try to occupy my mind with positive thoughts. But I still have three more months here, so I can smile and just think about all the excitement ahead! I miss my family like crazy.  Seeing my sister and brother, being able to just have that comfort knowing I can go home whenever I’d like is what I miss most.  And of course my mama. I send my love and best wishes to everyone at home. 

View of me and Emily on the roof!
Emily, Me, Sophia and our friend Adel.
The room we stayed in at Michelle’s house.
Sunset from our new room!
View of all the buildings from our back window.
Some friends at the costume party.
Girls/ Movie night!
In Den Hagg.
All of the girls!
At the costume party
At the costume party
Me and Michael as Sandy and Danny
Riding on the back of a bike. Quite the adventure.

Beloved Brussels, Belgium

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When planning the trip to Belgium I never realized all that Brussels has to offer. The trip started by waking up at 5:30 to catch our train. It was a 2 hour train ride from Leiden to Brussels. The thought that I could be in a different country in two hours was unbelievable. The train ride was very eventful. We took the train from Leiden to Rossendal (A small town in Holland). Our train was a little late and it left us with three minutes to transfer trains. It was one of those moments where we ran from platform 6 to platform 1. Running to the next platform, I felt I was in a movie and everything was in slow motion.

Thankfully, we made it. When we finally arrived to Brussels, I was filled with excitement. It was my first time traveling to another country since I’ve been here and all I could do was just smile.

During our first few hours there we ate Belgian waffles and went on a walking tour. We began our walking tour at the Grand Palais, or Grand Place. It was exactly what the name says. Absolutely grand. All the buildings were gilded with gold. And each building had a story behind it. They were centuries old and each one was sculpted to perfection. We walked to many places including the Stock exchange, the Royal Palace, a park, St. Michaels Cathedral, the Manneken Pis (Which translate to “peeing boy”), and this garden on the top of a hill where you could see all of Brussels. The view was unlike anything I have seen yet.

Brussels was one of those towns where around every corner is something different.  It is a mixture of modern and century old buildings. The beauty is indescribable. We met so many people on our tour.  We met Australians, Israelis, English, and even people from the U.S.  It was so crazy to meet people from all over the world that were on our tour.  The tour ended on these steps that over looked a view of Brussels. We stayed there for an hour more, just sitting there taking in the moment.

Our next adventure was trying Belgian fries. Belgians are quite upset about the coined term french fries. French fries actually originated in Belgium, and they are not at all french. Even though Belgians speak french, this is one thing that they strongly believe to be strictly Belgian.  One thing I know is that the Belgians have perfected fries.  We went to this place called Fritland and tried our first order of Belgian fries.  These fries are incredible.  The way the man explained it to us was they cook the fries at one temperature, take them out, let them cool and then put them in again.  This allows the outside to be nice and crisp, while the middle is still smooth and soft.  This theory proved to be right.  The fries were better than delicious.  They don’t eat them with ketchup. They have a variety of sauces, ranging in tastes.  We tried all of them; American, Brazilian, Samurai and others.  These sauces honestly have nothing to do with their names, but they were so good it didn’t matter.

After the fry excursion, we went to go find our hostel. We thought leaving Holland, we would leave the rain, but the rain followed us.  We walked around lost, looking for our hostel in the pouring down rain for 30 minutes.  By this time we had been up for hours, we were tired, had been walking forever and just wanted to find our hostel.  We finally found it and to our surprise, it ended up being one of the nicest places I’ve stayed. We napped and rested up for the pub crawl we wanted to do.

As we walked to the pub, we found out that the city’s beauty enhances during the night.  The streets are lit up, along with all the buildings. We met at an Irish pub, not something you would normally do in Belgium, but that’s where it started.  We met the guy that would be taking us to all the pubs, and all the people on the tour, some from the walking tour early in the day.  We had five bars that we had to go and free Belgian beer. So basically the tour guide was just a babysitter for people wanting to get drunk on Belgian beer. We had our first Belgian beer, La Chouffe.  I learned all about beers and why they were served in the glass they are, I learned about the color of the beer, and the alcohol content.  My dad would be proud to say the least. There are over 250 types of Belgian beer.  Sadly, I only tried two. Out of all the bars, the last bar and the one before the last were my favorite. At the third bar, we all were dancing and enjoying ourselves and the song girls just want to have fun came on (our group consisted of 11 girls out of 13). We all got on stage and began to sing.  After the fifth American song, Pan (tour guide) came up and said, “Yeah, the DJ is my friend and I told him to play those songs so I could see what fools you Americans could make of yourselves.” It’s quite appalling the joy he got from seeing us be fools.

We had experienced so much in so little time, but all of it was so worth all the fun we had.

The next morning we woke up and, of course, we ate more waffles.  In the two days that I was in Belgium my food consisted of waffles, chocolate, and fries. I loved every minute of it.  We went and walked around an open flea market in the square.  Not quite as great as the market in Holland or in Madrid, but it was still nice. We didn’t really make plans for the day, we thought we could just get lost and explore.  We found a small cafe, Salon de Chocolat (Cafe of Chocolate) and decided to try the hot chocolate.  I felt like I was at a giant tea party.  The way the Belgians do hot chocolate is very different.  They bring you fresh, melted belgian chocolate. Our chocolate was 70% dark cocoa with hazelnuts from Turkey. They give you the melted chocolate with a tea cup of warm milk and it was toped off with a basil macaroon. Just sitting in the cafe and enjoying our Belgian hot chocolate was enough for me.

On our tour, we had stopped at St. Michaels Cathedral.  It was  a cathedral built in 1047.  The church was modeled after the gothic theme that was popular during that time. On our tour we had only stopped there briefly.  My friend Michelle and I had been taking about how we wanted to attend a mass service at some point in Europe.  As we walked up to the church on our last day, we walked in and a church service had just started.  It was meant to be! Although it was all in french and I could not understand the language, I felt like I understood it all. It was an incredible experience to have.

After church, we went to the garden stairs again, the place where you could see all of Brussels. We just sat there enjoying our last few hours in Brussels.  When you go some place you have never been before, its quite entrancing.  As I looked around soaking in as much culture, history, and as many memories as I could, from my favorite view of Belgium, I just felt so grateful.  It sounds so cliche, but I never understood how lucky I am to have this experience until then. Before I left to come here, I was listening to my sister talk about how the cities you visit just captivate you. Belgium, being my first trip, simply captivated me.  I’ll probably say this about every place that I visit, but being in a new city, on a new continent, with all your friends, is something so memorable.