Krakow Poland

This past week a friend and I visited Krakow Poland. On our way there we discovered some difficulties. The lack of English spoken makes buying train tickets and asking for directions seem next to impossible. Once we arrived in Krakow we couldn't find our hostel, and ended up walking up and down the street walking past it for a half hour.

Old Town Square

Caitlin at Brunch

 

On our first day in Krakow we explored the city centre in the morning, and had brunch in the square. Afterwards we left the city for a tour of Auschwitz, a concentration camp from the Holocaust. The tour was interesting and insightful, and worth visiting.

On our second day in Poland we took a bus to Zakopane, a mountainous town about 2.5 hours away. We were planning on taking a tour but were told at the hostel that it would be much cheaper to go on our own. Little did we know how confusing it would be to find the cable car at the mountains once we arrived. After finding a place for lunch we starting walking in the general direction of the mountains. After about an hour of walking in the rain we finally found the cable car only to find out it had closed 5 minutes before! At least we saw the mountains from a distance :)

The Mountains in Zakopane

Lunch in Zakopane

On the last day in Krakow we took a tour of the Wieliczka salt mines, a popular tourist attraction a half hour from Krakow (1.2 million people visit it per year) We were told we were very lucky to be there in the off season. In the tourist season you may have to wait up to 5 hours to get in and 3 hours to get back out!  The mines had many sculptures made out of salt, and the walls were covered in salt. Our tour guide was really interesting, and knew a lot about the mines, probably due to the fact that he had given 4000 tours. Later that night I had my third serving of perogies since coming to Poland. (The most amazing food Poland can offer!)

In the Salt mines

Chandelier in the Mines

Salt lake in the Mines

We spent our last night in Warsaw, but due to a long train trip we didn't get to see much of the city. We didn't have much motivation to see it though since everyone we'd talked to told us it wasn't a nice city. After a long morning of travel on Wednesday (and almost missing our flight) we made it home to the Netherlands!

Our hostel in Krakow

Day Trips, and Sunny Days

Laura had some friends visiting from Germany who had a car so on wednesday March 12 I took a day trip to Vlissingen Netherlands. Here we walked around the town, stopping for ice-cream along the way. The day was one of many sunny days we've had in a row here so we ate lunch outside in a café and hung out at the beach afterwards. When we returned home we made a vegetable risotto.


Although I should have been at home preparing for my finals, it was worth the day of relaxation in the end.

       

 Last week was full of sunny warm days, and so even though we had to study we tried to make the most of it by doing it outside. Having a picnic in the middle of the campus is the best way to multi task.

Earlier last week I spent the afternoon studying in the middle of the forest, getting a few strange looks from the people biking and walking by. The best way to get work done is to hide in a place with no people, or internet!


This past saturday was the Holland City Race, which was arranged by I*esn. Our team of seven people (Camille, Raischa, Jochem, Andrea, Anna, and Baron) visited 9 cities in one day. We started off in Tilburg at 8:30am and travelled to Eindhoven, Breda, Den Bosch, Delft, Leiden, Harlaam, Nordvoort, and then ended in Utrecht.
In each city we had to find certain landmarks such as churches and parks and take photos in front of them

We were also given challenges along the way such as fitting a whole stroopwafel in our mouths, giving flowers to an old lady, or giving a drink and some food to a homeless person.

Every challenge and photo earned you points and in the end we placed second out of nine teams. The day ended in Utrecht where everyone ate pizza before travelling home. I didn't arrive home until 12:30am.

Another friday brought another carpe diem dinner. This week was the Czech Republic cooking with culture event. We had soup, goulash, and a chocolate desert. They included a Czech quiz and music to learn more about the culture. This week I ate with Laura, her German friend Hannah, Ellaisha, and Mikko.

After the dinner there was a party at Café Philip down the street from Carpe Diem. Even when I tried to leave just after midnight (due to the early morning city race) I was dragged right back in for another hour and a half. Even though I was incredibly tired saturday it was still fun.

 

Ghent Belgium

Our Boat Hostel

This past weekend a group of us (Laura, Koko, Emanuel, and Jiri) travelled to Ghent Belgium. Although we've all been to Belgium many times now we thought it was necessary to visit Ghent once we found out we could stay in a boat hostel (with a cat onboard nonetheless!) 
The day we arrived we explored the city and enjoyed the sunshine. Koko had the first of her 4 waffles. For lunch we bought french fries and ate them by the canal. It would have been very hard to get a good table at an outdoor café because of the sunshine.

In the afternoon we found our boat hostel so we could check in and drop off our bags. Here we met some of the other travellers staying on the boat. Students from Poland, Sweden, and America studying in Belgium.
Our new friends helped me convince everyone that it was necessary to take the canal tour through the city. Luckily we caught the very last boat (with an English speaking guide even!)

Our group.. Met some new friends at the Hostel

Boat Canal Ride

Afterwards we were all starving and went in search of a restaurant that 7 people could agree on. While looking for a restaurant a woman pulled us into an old church and tried to convince us to come to a creative event there the next day. She made us slightly uncomfortable, and needless to say we did not return the next day). We settled on an Indian restaurant with friendly staff and lovely butter chicken. Second best I've ever had. Most of our second day was spend lounging in the sun by the canal due to the 20 degree weather and sunshine!

 

The Castle 

Cat love! "Tiger"

Day 4: Lake Konstanz Germany

 On our last day in Germany Laura and I took the train to Konstanz to see the lake. We were in the right place at the right time for a ride to the train station a second day in a row. The view outside the window on the two-hour train ride was lovely, mountains, forests and German villages passed by as we drove through black forest. Once we arrived in Konstanz we laid in the sunshine by the water. Because we wanted to take a boat ride we hopped on the first boat we saw…a catamaran to Friedrichshafen. This town had been bombed during the war, and so most of the buildings were built in the 1950s and aren’t as beautiful as some other German towns. Since there wasn’t much to see in this town we found the nearest bakery to buy a soft pretzel and sat on a sunny bench people watching. That night we had dinner with Laura’s parents and played a game with
her dad, followed by a cheesy movie on Netflix for the two of us.