Den Haag, Netherlands

 This Sunday I visited the City Den Haag, in the Netherlands. In order to get a cheaper train ticket we went as a group of 15. Because it is impossible to get anywhere in a group of 15, we split up into smaller groups once we arrived.

The city itself wasn't as nice as I had hoped.
 It was a combination of older buildings and more modern ones.



       



We saw the peace palace and many of the Embassy's that are located in The Hague. The most exciting part for me though was going to the North Sea. The beach was beautiful and luckily it was a rare sunny day in the Netherlands. If only it had been warmer than 5 degrees!

 

February 16 -21 2014

Ellaisha and Marta

Laura and I

This past sunday my friend Laura made a valentines dinner for me, that was ready and waiting when i returned home from London. After a long day of travelling with not much food it was a nice surprise. It was so sweet of her ;)

Every Tuesday there is a mentor dinner, with the groups we were assigned to in the first week. Each week people from different cultures cook food, and every party has a theme. This week the theme was sExchange party, in which everyone dresses up as the opposite sex. Many of the guys took this theme very seriously. 

Every Friday the cooking committee makes a 3 course meal at the international bar carpe diem for only 5 euros. I try to go to the dinner every week because the food is always great. This week we had salad, homemade hamburgers and crepes. 

Koko and I at Carpe Dinner

Hagel Slag and Peanut Butter

 This week i received the two packages from home that i've been waiting for. After 5 weeks of tracking online I was very excited when they arrived. Battered and bruised on the outside but nothing was damaged. It was so nice of mom to send me all my favourite crackers from home!

 

Leiden, Netherlands

 Today I went on a day trip to Leiden Netherlands, a city close to Amsterdam.
We walked around the city, and saw many windmills, and canals. In the afternoon we went to a greenhouse on the Leiden University campus.

Leiden is beautiful with everything you would expect for a typical dutch city.
I would highly recommend visiting it if you get the chance

Bean :)

   

  

London England

 This past week I travelled to London England to visit an old friend. I met Dalia when I spent 3 weeks in Spain the summer before university. In order to get to London I had to take a train, bus, plane, bus, and then the tube, but somehow managed to make it the whole way without getting lost.
On wednesday we ventured out into the rain, and went to the Natural History Museum out then out for fish and chips. Afterwards we had coffee, hot chocolate, and desserts. We met up with some of dalias friends later on at a martini bar.

 On Thursday we had beautiful sunny weather (the only nice weather of my trip) We went to see the London Bridge, 
and went to the Tate museum. We ate lunch at borough market (curry, and raclette) On friday Dalia had to work during the day so I explored on my own.  I visited camden market, and then took the tube to Covent Garden Market. I stopped at a pub for some more fish and chips and then explored the market.There 
I watched a street performer on a 8 foot unicycle

Afterwards I went back to trafalgar square
to see it during the day, and visited the National
Portrait Gallery. Because it had been pouring the
Whole day and I was tired of wet feet, I headed home.






 

Brussels Belgium

Freshly Made Chocolates

This weekends trip to Belgium was rather last minute. Originally we were headed to Antwerp but when we didn't get a reply from our hostel the night before we switched our plans and booked a trip to Brussels.

City Centre

Chocolate cornucopia

Laura and I

Lovely Cow beds

Chocolate Fashion Show

 As soon as we stepped off the train we headed to the nearest waffle restaurant for our first waffle of the trip. Afterwards we headed to our hostel. Due to the fact that we booked so last minute we didn't end up in the nicest hostel. 5 cow beds and one dolphin bed, with one bed containing bed bugs. But the room was really large and rather cheap.

On our way to the hostel we noticed an advertisement for a chocolate expo so naturally thats where we ended up. 8.50 for a few hours of chocolate tasting and a chocolate fashion show, complete with models wearing chocolate dresses.

After the show we headed to a local restaurant. Luckily we had Laura who spoke french to help us with the menus.

The following day we bought a day pass for the subway. We walked around a local flea market in the morning. After lunch we found the city centre and of course Manneken Pis, which is much smaller than you would think. We finished off the day by visiting the European Parliament buildings and taking the free interactive tour.

Our group and the Manneken Pis

European Parliament

Free Samples

Out to dinner