The Land of Beer, Waffles and Chocolate

Since I am soooo close to Belgium I figured I'd give it a visit. It's like if I were to drive from Long Beach to San Diego. That close.

Ashley (from Humboldt), and I left eaaarrrllyyyyyy Friday morning to take a bus to Brussels. We figured if we left early and slept on the bus we would wake up just in time for some WAFFLES.

And we did.

And it was all I wanted. And more

Ashley and I decided to join a free walking tour because I'm not sure if we would have found/ visited all the places they took us to without it. Plus Brussels doesn't have too much to do. 

This view.

Wannabe Notre Dame

Look at this guy's camera angle

Great design

This was our tour guide. He was from Australia 

Hey that's me

So pretty at night

YAS.

Instead of staying the night in Brussels, we took a train to Antwerp and spent the night there. It was much cheaper there. We woke up early, had ourselves some delicious bagels (not pictured because I can't contain myself around bagels) and went on our merry way. At a stop light we started talking to two other travelers who just happen to be studying abroad at a different university in the Netherlands. Turns out one of them is studying Industrial Design! We spent the rest of the day with them, traveling around the city and hanging out. It's awesome that we just happened to meet two really nice students who were doing the same things as us. 

They were setting up for a wedding. Oops

#StreetArt

Coolest train station 

Cali girls take Antwerp

Everywhere you look is pretty

Who cares about buildings and architecture though? I know everyone wants to know about the cuisine. Was the chocolate good? YES. Was the beer good? YES.

Chocolateeeeeeeeee

YUMMM

2 pieces didn't 

Guess who found BOBAAAA??

Mussels and fries. 

Drink

Drank

Drunk

After Antwerp we caught the bus back to Amsterdam. Even though it was a quick trip, it was well worth it. I had such a blast and I plan on going back soon.

Sunny Days in the Netherlands

Sorry it's been awhile. I've been busy studying...

And traveling around. 

It's so pretty here. The leaves are changing colors and the air is a bit brisk. And by brisk I mean freezing. 

But I'm not going to complain because although it is cold, it is sunny! We have had like a solid 2 weeks of sun. It's fantastic. My friends and I have taken full advantage of the sun and have spent the weekends biking around and exploring new cities in the Netherlands.

My friends and I spent one sunny day at the local museums and biking around Vondelpark. 

Museum Crew. Not including the guy in the back 

Van Gogh

Rijksmuseum 

 And then I blew the back tire of my bike out so we had to wait like 5 hours for it to be fixed. So annoying. THENNN we could finally bike through Vondelpark.

My 12 year old girl's bike

House goals

Where's my Tarzan?

A week later we took a day trip to Groningen and Pieterburen through our International Student Network. We ended up spending more time on a fricken bus than in the actual cities. We get to Groningen and we have an hour to explore the city. AN HOUR. I can't even shop in Trader Joe's in an hour how am I suppose to explore an entire city?? Well, we tried.

YASSSS

More YASSSSS

And then we took the bus to Pieterburen, to a seal sanctuary. Now, since our bus driver got lost for an hour we only had about 30 minutes here. But the seals were cute. But they didn't let us take them home. Rude.

Just chillen

But it wasn't too bad. I got to spend the day with my fweeeends

#diversity 

I'm going to write a whole separate blog on Belgium because it doesn't fit with the flow of this one. I'm going to skip the Belgium trip for now and continue on with more Netherlands fun. 

Took a bus to Haarlem. It might be my new favorite place. I LOVED IT. I already want to go back.

Afternoon tea

Cute streets

Went to a local Brewery 

Market

FWENDSSSS

Need. For sure.

Glad I found people just as weird as me

Loveeee

This house is wonky. 

I could live here

She's more California than I am

And we had Mexican for dinner! Shitty Mexican, but it still tasted like home.

Gorg.

The very next day we went to Utrecht. It was like a mini Amsterdam. And we were tired from the day before so we packed a picnic lunch, walked around and had a chill day exploring. We figured it was only a 20 minute train ride away so we could always go back.

I was cold.

Best cookie I've ever had

Kodak Moment

I found this mirror on the ground

I loooooove this fence

Sorry this post isn't as humorous and detailed as usual. Think of this post more of a photo blog. Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Now If you excuse me I need to pack because I leave for Italy on Friday. YEEEEEEEEEEEEE