Spring Break!

So I am finally able to update my blog! I wanted to update it more when I was on my trip but I really had absolutely no time to. When I did try to write, I got distracted. I had an amazing time, I don't even know where to start. My favorite place? Capri, it was gorgeous and probably the prettiest place I have ever been to. I can't really say I have a least favorite place. They were all wonderful. Even choosing Capri as my favorite was difficult. I really enjoyed them all. I am going to try to do a very very brief description of each place and picking out the highlights of each one. Just know, this will be a long entry. Much like my very first one which got deleted about a month and half ago. Oops. Also, I went on this trip with my friends Miranda and Christina, so when I say "we" that's who I am referring to. There are links to all the pictures, if I posted them in the blog, the entry would be even longer so that's why there is none posted.

First stop, Brussels. For some reason I really had an interest in going to this city, it sounded really appealing. It was a really cute city with really pretty architecture. We just stopped briefly on our way from London to Amsterdam by train. We had to carry our luggage everywhere which was no fun. We didn't realize that Brussels Midi Train Station had lockers. What we saw was the famous, Manneken Pis statue which is a a little boy peeing. I'm not sure why it's so famous but there were a lot of people standing around there. Belgium is famous for it's chocolate and they had waffles everywhere, so I got a waffle with strawberries, chocolate and whipped cream. It was delicious! From there we headed to Grand Place, which is basically the city center.  It's a cute little square with beautiful architecture. After that, we were tired and decided to head to Amsterdam.

Train from Brussels to Amsterdam: Just to let you all know, we were traveling using the Eurail pass. It's a pass that allows you to travel for x amount of days and unlimited amount of time on those days. My pass covered Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), France, Spain and Italy for 9 travel days. We bought a train ticket from London to Brussels, Belgium. Once we got to Brussels we had to activate our pass. When we did that, we had 10 minutes to board the next train to Amsterdam, so we rushed and made the train. About an hour into the train, the conductors came to check our tickets. The Dutch conductor took Miranda's ticket and started to say "Your ticket is not valid! You must pay 40 euros" Well, Miranda was confused, I was confused. We paid for the tickets, we got them activated and we though we were okay. We didn't understand and were trying to get the conductor to explain to us, and we did but we were trying to explain how it was our first journey and we didn't know. He kept telling us we were basically riding for free because we didn't write down our travel day on the pass. He was not listening to us at all and it was really frustrating. Another conductor came to us and they let us go. That was the only problem we ever had on the trains after that. I know the conductor was doing his job but the way he addressed us was very rude and he could have been nicer.

Amsterdam: I really enjoyed Amsterdam. I think out of the major cities I visited, this is my favorite. The architecture was really nice and different.  The canals made everything look really pretty and apparently there are more canals there than Venice. Here, we spent two nights but one full day. The first day, we just walked around and explored the city. The next day, we took a free walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was very nice and took us all over Amsterdam telling us some fun stories and amazing stories of how the people of Amsterdam stand up for each other; especially during the Holocaust. He told us one story how when the Nazi's came to the Jewish area of the city, many of the Amsterdam people were fighting against them and protesting. Many protests happened in Amsterdam. I would tell you more but because this blog is going to be long, I don't want to. I just loved how everyone in the city stands up for everyone's rights and it doesn't matter where you come from or what you are, the people accept you. After the tour, we headed to the Anne Frank House which I really enjoyed. We were able to see where Anne Frank hid until someone told a Nazi officer that her family was hiding there and took them to the concentration camp. The secret annex was pretty large and it was all hidden behind a bookshelf, which was pretty neat. As you walked through the museums there was the story of Anne Frank and everyone was quiet and respectful. The line to get in was fairly large which I wasn't expecting but it was well worth the wait.

Pictures of Brussels and Amsterdam

Paris: To get to Paris we had to take about 5 different transfers so that we didn't have to pay and it would be covered by our Eurail pass. After a long day of traveling, we arrived at our hostel which was just outside of Paris in Chelles. We got there, and it was pretty nice. It was a lot nicer than we expected. We had our own mini apartment with a double bed and a futon and a huge clean shower, which is always really nice after using tiny showers all the time. We spent two nights in Paris and two full days exploring the city. The first day, we did a walking tour of the city. These are free walking tours run by Sandeman's New Europe. Anytime I mention a free walking tour, that's who it is and it's well worth it. It's free and at the end you tip the tour guide if you want and as much as you want. We walked pass Notre Dame, The Louvre and other famous places. From a distance were able to see the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. After the tour, we got some dinner, and then headed to The Louvre which is free on Friday nights for people under the age of 26. The museum is huge! Inside the building is gorgeous as well and then of course there is all the famous art. Personally, I am not a big museum person but I almost think the Louvre is worth it just to see the inside of the building. I did go see the Mona Lisa. Everyone tells me it is small but I thought it was the a decent size and what I imagined it to be. There were tons of people there and it was difficult to get close to it. After that, we headed back to the hotel to relax. The next day we walked to the Eiffel Tower. We were going to go to the top but the line was way too long. Instead, we just headed towards Notre Dame and went inside there, which was really pretty. After that, we had to get to the train station to catch our train to Barcelona.

Pictures of Paris

Barcelona: Christina and I took a 9:50pm train from Paris to Barcelona, while Miranda took an 8:30 train since she could not get on the same train as Christina and I. It was an overnight train. My train had a connection, the connection time that I was given was wrong, so we had to wait an extra half hour, oh well. Christina and I got to Barcelona around 12:30pm I think. We took a metro to our hostel. We followed the directions to our hostel but got lost. We went to ask for help from a fruit market, the woman led us in the opposite direction. She thought we were looking for the Sagrada Familia but we were looking for the Sant Jordi Sagrada Familia. After making a complete circle, we found our hostel, right across the street from the market. There we met Miranda and Sarah. Sarah is my flatmate who joined us for Barcelona. After we all got settled in, we went for a walk and so the Sagrada Familia, a beautiful unique cathedral.  We did not go in because it was too much money, and Uncle John told me it was not worth it. We took some pictures then headed back to the hostel where we just relaxed, something that was very much needed after the past couple of days of lots of traveling and walking. The next morning, Sarah had to go to a different hostel than us, so we took her to check in and then walked around Barcelona. We walked along La Ramba and up to the Palau de Musica Catalana. On the way there we stumbled upon this beautiful Cathedral which had a very peaceful garden surrounded by little chapels. It was one of my favorite Cathedrals because it was so peaceful. The next day, we met Sarah in town and we went to the beach. The beach was beautiful and it was nice and relaxing but unfortunately, when we were laying out in the sun someone stole Sarah's bag. So, if you ever find your way to Barcelona, hold on to your bags, especially at the beach. We immediately went to the police and luckily her passport was not in there but she lost a camera, phone and wallet. After the police station, Christina and I said goodbye to Miranda and Sarah and headed off to Italy.

Pictures of Barcelona

Rome: After an extremely long train ride from 7:30pm Tuesday night to 12:30 Wednesday afternoon, we went straight to our hostel to find out there is a lockout from 10 to 4 for cleaning. So we dropped off our bags and headed to the Roman Forums. We saw the Colosseum and Roman Forums. It was pretty much the same as when I first went. Some buildings were open in the forum that weren't when I went in 10th grade and some were closed for renovation. We headed back to the hostel, took showers, and met our roommates from America. Christina and I then went to get dinner. I got gnocchi and bruschetta which was so good. It was then back to the hostel to rest after a long and tiring day. Plus, it was raining. The next day we headed to Vatican. We have been really good as far as spending money goes. For some reason, we got dragged into one of those "Hey! Join our tours and you can skip the line!". We are unsure why because we are both smarter than that. I'm not sure if we were both just tired or what but we ended up wasting 30 euros. I was pretty pissed about it but there is nothing we can do about it except learn our lesson. We were good all the other times. It would have been worth it if we went to the Basilica first instead of the Vatican museums. This is because once we saw the Sistine chapel in the Vatican museum, and went to see St. Peter's Basilica the line was insanely long that we didn't have time to do it. So we headed towards the Trevi Fountain and then the Spanish steps. Except, what I thought was the Spanish Steps on the map was not the spanish steps and so I did not get to see them. Just like how I didn't get to see them in 10th grade when I went with school. Oh well. We headed back to our hostel, got our bags, and were on our train to Sorrento.

Pictures of Rome

Sorrento/Capri: So throughout the whole trip, we managed to get on all the right trains. Except, when we got to Naples, we go on the wrong train to Sorrento. Luckily, some guy could tell we were going to Sorrento and told us we were on the wrong train, to get off at the next stop, and it was the next train. Thank god, for that guy! We got to Sorrento, and just took  a cab to our hostel which was actually a campsite. I gave the guy my name, and it turns out they lost our reservation but he gave us an upgrade and it turned out to be cheaper than I thought it was going to be. So it worked out in our favor! The next day was Capri! The tour left right from our campsite. We hopped on a boat, it went to pick up another group of people and then we were headed for Capri. We stopped at the Blue Grotto but it was 11.50 euros for about a 4-5 minute boat ride which I felt was way overpriced so I didn't go in. We stopped at the Marina Piccola and were free for the rest of the day. Christina and I met a very nice vendor who made some cute jewelry so I bought some from him and he gave me a free postcard and some rocks. We got some pizza and gelato and just walked around. The whole island is gorgeous and peaceful. It was so worth it! After walking around, I took a nap on the beach with the beautiful clear water! Unfortunately, it was filled with jellyfish which seemed to entertain a group of kids who decided to kill them and put them into a pile. It was kind of sad but also entertaining to see them try to catch them. Around 4pm we headed back on the boat, which took us around the rest of the island, and we were headed back to our hostel. We then walked around Sorrento which was a really cute town. When we got back, we just went to sleep.

Pictures of Capri and Sorrento

That leads me to now. I've kind of been writing this blog all day and night, stopping and continuing. The trip was absolutely amazing and I would probably do it again but definitely do some things differently. For one, space out the days and cities more and then possibly not do the Eurail pass. Anyways, it was a fun adventure and something that I will never forget. I know I will probably get back to some of these places again. I felt like this trip was just a little sample to see what I like. I know that I definitely prefer more natural places like Capri over large cities such as Paris but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy Paris. Like I said, to pick a favorite or least favorite is difficult. They all had something different to offer.