Spring break with Dutch:
My spring break this year
was spent wandering through Europe. I left in the late of night with my travel
companions from Scotland headed to Dublin, Ireland. We arrived and breezed
through security and found ourselves without transportation. We quickly found a
bus near our hostel and then walked with confidence to our hostel, in the wrong
direction. Several blocks later we realized our mistake and turned back to
the way we came. Finding our hostel at 1am we tried quietly to crawl into the
room with 9 strangers. Dublin surprised us with wonderful sunshine and
interesting people. I met a great guy from the room named Alessio who was on
holiday from Italy. We spent most everyday with him going on tours and him
giving me cooking lessons on Italian dishes. Going to historic sites and
exploring the Guinness brewery were some of my best memories of the great city
of Dublin. We also took a tour of Ireland and went to one of the most beautiful
places I have ever been. The Cliffs Moher.
It was now time for the next leg of our
journey, so once again we boarded the plane and flew to Brussels, Belgium. This city took me by surprise. It was filled
with interesting history and the city was beautiful. We were again blessed with
sunshine and warm weather for the duration of our stay. We took a walking tour
of the city and our guide carefully described the city and its life. I found
the streets to friendly and I felt like I was at home even though I could not
speak the language. I would definitely come back to the great city and not just
for the wonderful chocolates!
We caught the train to
Breda in the Netherlands a large city that offered us a quiet retreat from the
hustle and bustle of being a tourist. Friendly shops and parks invited us from
every corner. Sitting in the park watching the wild chicken under the willow
trees was just the break we needed. Rest was not long as we had another stop
planned for spring break.
Once again we boarded the train and headed to Amsterdam, Holland. Arriving in the midmorning we decided to walk to our hotel. What we didn’t realize was that it was 4 miles from the station and the city does not have a straight street line plan. So after wondering around at a leisure pace, stopping to see buildings and shops we made it the hotel and quickly unpacked into a private room. It was small but we didn’t have to share and that was nice enough for us. We came up with a game plan and left the hotel.
Wondering the streets once again we soon found that we were pleasantly lost in the city. Making the best of it we just wandered around. Finding parks to relax in and coffee shops to visit. Stopping to listen to street performers was a great memory. We broke our group and just walked around. The sun was shining bright and we were prepared to soak up as much as we could. The next day we took a walking tour of the city and found some rhythm to the street plans and visited the red light district and historic buildings. Listening to the history and local culture was very interesting. One of my fondest memories from Amsterdam is on the third day we packed a lunch and found a park ad just hung out there for hours laughing, playing Frisbee and taking in all the sunshine.
It was now time to head back to our home in
Edinburgh Scotland, the palace was a welcome site for this weary traveler. I
enjoyed my spring break immensely and would recommend to anyone to loosely plan
a trip somewhere and just go with whatever happens, that’s how memories are
made!
No comments:
Post a Comment