Merry Christmas, everyone!!! It's the end of my first semester here -- it's crazy how time flies. All my exchange student friends who were here on semester have just left me, and it's made me a little sad for the holidays, both because they're gone and because it reminds me that I'll have to leave at the end of this year too. But two of my cousins from Malaysia who are studying/working in the UK are here to spend Christmas and New Year's with me, so that's been nice. :)
I haven't blogged in a while because the end of the semester came super quickly, and finals were killing me slowly. Thankfully, I survived and can tell of my adventures in Switzerland, Brussels, Münster, and here in the Netherlands!
I took an alone trip to Switzerland in late November!!! I went to Geneva the first day, and my first stop was the Palace of Nations, the UN headquarters. It was pretty quiet but looked super cool!
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| Palais des Nations |
Next, I bussed to the old town where I just walked around and explored different shops and let myself get lost through the streets, occasionally checking my location on my map. I love going through a new city with only a paper map -- it's so fun! I saw some old buildings and churches and nice architecture. I was like dying from all the hills though. Switzerland has some intense slopes...after living in the flat landscape of the Netherlands for the past few months, I am really not used to inclines.
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| I'm in Switzerland!!! |
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| The stairs are a shortcut from one street to the next...do you see how steep things here are?!?! |
After eating a yummy crepe for lunch at a cute little cafe, I went to the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Museum of Art & History...everyone speaks French in Geneva!). It was free, and I love museums, so I had such a fun afternoon there taking my time and going through each floor.
It was beautiful in the city with all the fall leaves everywhere. I bought some macarons and pain au chocolate and ate them by the water. It was very nice.
For dinner, I walked into this nice little restaurant, and the waiter seemed really confused that I was eating alone...whateverrr, no shame. Also, food (wait no, actually...EVERYTHING) is super expensive in Switzerland. At every restaurant I looked at, the menu was consistently between 25-40 francs (a Swiss franc is almost equivalent to a US dollar right now). I kept ordering the cheapest thing, which was like 12ish francs everywhere. Craziness.
After dinner and walking around a bit more, I headed to the station for my train to Fribourg, which is about an hour and a half away. I was welcomed by my couchsurfing host and her friends there. It was my first time couchsurfing, and it was honestly the best experience I could have had.
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| Sophie and me! |
My host, Sophie, was also a university student and was the sweetest person in the world. She accompanied me the whole next day and showed me around her beautiful city. Geneva, while wonderful, is very international and more touristy, but Fribourg feels more authentic and Swiss. It's kind of like comparing Amsterdam and Utrecht.
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| ISN'T FRIBOURG BEAUTIFUL (yes) |
But yeah, it was the best day ever, and we got along super well. It honestly felt like I was visiting an old friend. She and her roommate made lunch for me, and then she drove us to Gruyères, a small town about half an hour away with a beautiful old castle and typical Swiss landscape with the mountains and everything all around us. It was incredible!
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| Driving through Switzerland! |
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| Gruyères |
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| View from Gruyères |
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| Just casually sitting in a square hole window thing gazing at mountains in the middle of Switzerland |
When we went back to Fribourg, her roommate joined us for dinner at a fondue place, where we had a traditional Swiss meal of cheese fondue.
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| Cheese fondue! It's delicious and makes you superrr full! |
They wouldn't let me pay for my own meal, and it was like 30 francs per person. They were truly the kindest and most generous people. After grabbing one last drink, it was time for me to head home. It was a very short but truly incredible trip -- I love Switzerland (and their chocolate!!!)
Brussels
The next day after I got back from Switzerland, I went to Brussels for a day trip with my school. It's only like 3 hours away! It was a trip planned by the Politics Committee, so we visited the European Parliament and the Dutch Embassy. It was cool to have a tour of the Parliament and to see their chambers!
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| European Parliament Chambers |
It was also very nice to hear representatives from both places tell us more about the European Union and how everything works. As an American, I really don't know that much about the EU government, so it was very interesting to learn about.
At the end of the day, we got a little time to walk around, and I got to try Belgian waffles and chocolate. Lots of chocolate this week. But yum. I'm heading back there tomorrow with my cousins, so it'll be fun to explore more! :)
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| Beautiful Brussels at Christmastime! |
My unitmate and I went a few weekends later to a Christmas market in Germany! It was a very very cold day, but drinking glühwein and eating bratwurst more than made up for it. I'd visited Christmas markets once before in high school when visiting Munich and Berlin with my family, so it was nice to come back once again. It was a nice relaxing day of walking around and trying to stay warm!
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| Christmas market by day! |
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| Christmas market by night! |
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| Bratwursts!!! Yum yum yum yum yum |
Home is still always the best place to be, and for me, that's the Netherlands right now! I've added to my list of Dutch adventures:
