Spring Break (part 1)

Sunday night was the start of my spring break, Europe Style!  I took the night train to Orleans, a city an hour south of France with my friend Olivier, Alexandrine and Valentina. It was a beautiful city but unfortunately we had to leave almost immediately after we got there we had to drive to Barcelona with our friend David. We drove by the Orleans cathedral though which was amazing! We were a little smashed having 5 people in a small 2 door car barely fitting 5 people but it was an adventure driving through south France on our 8 hour drive to Barcelona.

University of Barcelona

I didn’t really sleep very much, but we arrived in Barcelona at about 8 am, then checked in to our apartment and went exploring for the day. I ate some amazing tapas of mussels, mozzarella salad and fried shrimp (prawns.) The city was so beautiful but very different from Paris, from the architecture to the weather and of course the language. It was about 65 degrees and sunny which was an amazing way to start off spring break. We walked to the University of Barcelona, the main square where all of the shops were, and to Parc Guell.

Parc Guell

 It is a huge park on a hill overlooking Barcelona that a famous Spanish architect built? It is a little strange, but it looks like a mosaic/dreamland. We hung out there for a while drinking some Spanish sangria and enjoying the view and the beautiful weather. I also bought some delicious gelatto since it was so hot… what a treat! I bought a really awesome ring and a bracelet that my friend Valentina was able to barter down for me; both had cool gems and were made out of these crazy wire designs… hard to explain but they look sweet J After doing some exploring we decided to go take a nap because of the lack of sleep that we had… 3 hours later I woke up feeling not so great. We went to get a late dinner at this Spanish restaurant where I had some really interesting chicken with a salad and fries. Since we were so tired, we didn’t go out or do anything that night and Valentina and I had to leave early in the morning to go to Brussels. I wish we could have stayed in Barcelona longer, but unfortunately we left a little later for Barcelona than planned. I loved the weather, the Spanish style architecture and just the city/food otherall… but we were of to another adventure of Belgium!

Valentina and I had to wake up at the crack of dawn and after some difficulties we finally managed to navigate the Barcelona metro and airport. Our flight was delayed so we had to take a power nap in the airport, but finally we took off and landed in Brussels at aboutSince we were only there for the day, we wanted to get in as much sightseeing as possible. The weather was similar to Paris, but it was colder than Barcelona which was sad. We dropped our suitcases off at a really cool hostel in downtown Brussels and then walked around the city exploring. We got to see the Brussels Botanical Gardens, which were beautiful and the Grand Place. It is a central square in the middle of the city where there are lots of shops, city hall, museums, restaurants, cathedrals, and a mini flower market. It was beautiful and the architecture really was amazing. As Belgium is famous for its beer, chocolate, waffles, and of course French fries (they really aren’t French!) we had to try all of them! We got some fruity beer (which was delicious) and a waffle with nutella, ice cream, strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It was more like a huge desert than anything to eat for lunch, but I was pretty impressed. After taking the break we walked to the famous Manneken Piss (the Pissing Boy) which was cool but not as big as I expected.

Some other sights that we saw included the Brussels stock exchange, Palace of Justice, and many neat museums. There was some really cool graffiti that I took lots of pictures of and lots of gay bars which surprised me. However, as a city Brussels was much better than I expected. The people were really nice and spoke French (which helped for me!), Flemish and German. After eating some Greek food for dinner since we napped too long to eat at a normal restaurant, we relaxed with a couple of the world famous beers Leffe which is even better in Belgium! The next day we had to leave for Stockholm so we hung out at the hostel café and then went to sleep.We left for Stockholm early the next morning and arrived a little nervous for some Scandinavian adventures. I don’t speak any Swedish so I looked up some phrases such as Thank you and Do you speak English but I didn’t have a big need for it as everyone spoke English fluently, but I tried to use Thank you as much as possible which is “Tak.” After getting off the plane and taking a metro “tunnelbana” to the city centre, we were extremely overwhelmed not speaking any Swedish and trying to find our hostel. Luckily this really nice woman basically walked us there which was on the island of Norrmalm. Stockholm is made up of 14 islands so unfortunately we were only able to visit about 5 of them. Our hostel was one of the coolest places I have ever stayed in! It had a mini-café/restaurant thing attached to the hostel with an outdoor patio as well. You had to take your shoes off when you entered the hostel (It’s a Swedish thing!) but it wasn’t too weird. There was about 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and a huge kitchen with a mini-fridge for each room complete with 2 stoves and sinks. In the middle was a big common room with couches, a TV and a couple Mac computers. It was pretty cheap and we met some really neat people.

After unpacking our stuff we decided to do some sightseeing. There was literally an H & M on every corner and most of the streets in the city center of Norrmalm. We ate a hotdog for lunch because they LOVE those in Scandinavia for some reason… really small bun and long hotdog was a little awkward but it works. We walked through Norrmalm and Djurgården, which is an island famous for the world’s largest folk museum, fair and zoo all in one area. We saw some beautiful buildings, fountains, and parks bordering the lake…. 

The weather was a little chilly at about 35 degrees but we wore about 5 layers so we were okay. On our long walk on the way there we saw one of the most beautiful sunrises in my life. Since Stockholm is so close to the Arctic Circle, then sunrises and sunsets are breathtaking. We went to the Vasa Museum which had the Vasa warship, which houses the world’s oldest fully recovered warship. It is from the 17^th century and the museum is housed around this giant ship. It was really amazing to see it looking almost good as new and learning about Swedish history and culture. After exploring the museum, we went to a highly rated restaurant (according to frommers.com) and gave it a try. The service was awesome... (All Scandinavian people are the nicest people I have ever met!) and we each tried Swedish meatballs and Swedish brand beer. I have tried the meatballs at Ikea (another Swedish product) but these were so delicious and creamy, with the fresh lingonberries on top. The beer was pretty good as well. After dinner we were just gonna go back and hang out at the hostel but we met these cool guys from Spain that were going out so we decided to join in. We walked around after going to the Seven-11 and getting some beer and finally found a really neat club called Sky Bar. There were about 5 different rooms with each one having different music and decoration. It was pretty fun to meet some other European guys and we danced with some Swedish people as well. We didn’t get home until late after a looong day but I was in love with Stockholm.



Swedish meatballs with ligonberries and mashed potatoes



vasa warship