Zaragoza at last!

The Plastics made it

Zaragoza is such a beautiful city especially when it is filled with such a beautiful group of people. Lots of food, alcohol, culture and relaxing was exactly what we needed after long days on the road (more for others than us lucky ones who bankrupted ourselves by getting the train).  The sun made it even better, we really hit the jackpot consistently around 25 degrees – perfect!

Fountain that from the top helped form the outline of South America

From the church tower we got a beautiful view over the city and especially the top of the Church which was very impressive. The Church inside however managed to be even more impressive, if slightly overly ostentatious. Gold dripped from every surface and art adorned the walls – one of the most impressive Churches I have seen potentially. We were given very disapproving looks from the Priest however – short shorts are not ideal clothes to wear in a Catholic Church where people are praying. At least we weren’t playing drinking games outside this Church as we had outside another the previous night.

On the Wednesday we went to visit the Amphitheater after a late brunch – it was good, old, but I feel growing up in a Roman city you become slightly desensitized to Roman ruins. We also probably could have done with longer than 30 minutes to explore. Wednesday evening we flew home, via Brussels Charleroi, with UCU travellers taking up easily around 30% of the flight – it was around a 2 hour flight and when we arrived we had to navigate the metro in order to find our friends house where we stayed over night – ready for a day of exploring Brussels, Vlaamse frites and yet more trains…

55 hours, 5 countries and a lot of money

With midterms finally over, it was time to party to mark the start of fall break and a week of what we hoped would be fun and relaxing. Fun, yes. Relaxing, far from it. My unitmate, Maurits, and I had decided to join the university hitchhiking trip to Zaragoza, Spain. We aimed to arrive before the dinner on Monday at 8:30pm, it was only 1500km, how hard could it be? We had our route all planned out, Antwerp, to Gent, to Paris, to Bordeaux, and into Spain – turns out hitchhiking is not easily planned as it all depends on luck, which more often than not was not on our side.

Our eventual route

Our first lift was off a lovely medical student from Utrecht University who took us to a gas station just outside Venlo, completely in the opposite direction to what we planned but at least we were getting somewhere! We waited at that gas station for probably about 3 hours for another lift who took us in the direction of Maastricht but as they were heading to Germany they couldn’t take us all the way – bless them though they moved all their luggage around in their car to fit us in though. It definitely would have been easier to hitchhike East than South I think. The gas station we were dropped at though was fairly quiet but eventually we managed to persuade one man to take us to the next gas station, a grand total of a 7 minute drive – but this was great because this gas station had loads of truckers and within 15 minutes we were on our way to France via Luxembourg!

Anywhere South of the Netherlands please

Around 6 hours (2am) and 2 movies later we safely arrived in Metz, France – which in itself is a miracle as half the journey I am convinced he didn’t have either of his hands on the steering wheel and was watching films. As we arrived in the middle of the night we resigned ourselves to not getting a lift until morning, fortunately we were allowed to sleep (or attempt to) in the closed gas station restaurant. After about a 4 hour wait in the cold the next morning a British couple gave us a lift to Dijon – all the way through the beautiful French countryside to avoid toll roads. Turns out they had come from Amsterdam – if only they had seen us when they were leaving on the Saturday…

Sunday was actually going pretty seamlessly with lifts after that wait – only about 30 minutes in Dijon to get to Lyon with some boy racers, 15 minutes wait to get to Montelimar with a French couple who spoke no English, and then it all started to go wrong. We managed to persuade a couple to give us a lift from Montelimar to Montpellier which was ideal, we could definitely make it to Spain by that evening since we would arrive in Montpellier at around 6:30/7. We didn’t. After agreeing to drop us at a gas station on the highway, they instead decided to drop us at a roundabout at a highway junction where we had almost no way of getting back onto the highway bar walking down the side of it to the next gas station (around 10k away) which looked terrifying especially in the dark. So we waited with our sign out asking for us to be taken to the next service station – only one couple picked us up who ended up having an argument in French in the front of the car and stopping the car in the middle of the road, turns out the man just wanted the driver to kick us out the car in the middle of the road but she was refusing. Determined to continue hitchhiking we called a cab to get us back onto the highway, but at the cost of €120 it was definitely not worth it, all the closest gas stations off the highway were also closed, so I made the decision to go to the train station and get the next train that would take us towards Spain. And thus, we were on our way to Perpignan with me texting my Dad asking him to find us the closest hostel to the train station – worst hitchhikers ever.

Perpignan however is really lovely, so I’d recommend a visit.

The next morning we woke up refreshed and dreading another day of hitchhiking, but like the martyrs we are we persevered against our better judgement. Our first ride took us onto the highway crammed into the back of a car with a sleeping toddler, leaving us at a peage/toll station. Apparently this is a good spot for hitchhiking, our experiences would argue otherwise, but eventually we were picked up due to our “lovely faces” and the fact that we probably looked about 16. In all honesty though, I would rather they had just left us as our next (and final) ride took us only to the next highway exit near a toll station and abandoned us with little warning. Queue us walking alongside the side of a highway with no layby and having to run across highway lanes – absolutely terrifying. Fortunately there was a parking spot on the otherside of the peage, where we waited and waited and waited to no avail only laughs from passers-by. Safe to say I did not deal well with this and sobbed for about an hour and a half. We did secretly hope my emotional distress would improve our chances, it did not – not even when we asked for help from the police but some ladies who worked at the toll station took pity on us and told us where to go to get a bus back to Perpignan where we had decided we would get the train.

The Pyrenees

Well that bus journey was quite the adventure as there was a gang fight on the bus with people armed with screwdrivers – very Orange is the New Black. No one was injured but it was all very exciting and made for a fantastic story when we arrived in Zaragoza.

3 trains and €82 later we arrived in Zaragoza. €70 of which went on the one highspeed train from Girona to Zaragoza which didn’t even have WiFi or power sockets – east coast does better than that!

At least we managed to make an entrance though, bursting in an hour late to dinner to rounds of applause – we had arrived and I could not have been happier.

However much we might have hated hitchhiking at times, when it was good it was very very good and when it was bad it was horrid. The good times, the lovely people and the time spent in Zaragoza definitely made up for all the bad – I would do it again but don’t ask me for at least a few months and definitely do not ask me to return to the South of France ever.

Cultural differences – Dutch paranoia

As I write this I can hear the emergency/civil defence alarm that goes off on the first Monday of the month at 12 – just to test it is still working. I find it very odd, it’s in case of invasion or gas leaks or bombs, so I understand it’s purpose – it’s just odd that it is still used and tested regularly. I definitely had a huge shock the first time I heard it, I thought maybe it was an alarm at a level crossing to let you know trains were coming – but no. That said the Dutch seem to find it odd that we don’t have one – what would we do if there was a gas leak? Just wait for the BBC news notification noise? I guess so.

However if the Netherlands was to be attacked at 12 on the first Monday of the month, the whole country would probably be dead because no one pays it any attention – apart from the new, scared expat and tourists.

3 day weekends are great

On Monday, Abbie and I made our way into Amsterdam for a day of museums and tourism. Having a three day weekend is so good! Touch wood, I have such a good timetable next semester… a girl can dream.

We went to the first museum, Body worlds, with Abbie’s housemate from York, who completely coincidentally was in Utrecht at the same time. The museum sounded really interesting, it was called the happiness project and I’m super interested in how emotions work and how they affect the body and such, so it sounded like it would be right up my street. I definitely had not realised it would be real-life dead bodies that had been like plastinated. So creepy, especially how you could actually tell what a lot of the full body ones would have looked like alive. It was actually really interesting though, even if some of it went over my head a bit. Abbie and Gillian were very into it though, and as two nurses probably understood a bit more of it. Definitely worth seeing though, even if it is a bit pricey.

I sampled “holland’s number one fries” for lunch, and I must admit I was disappointed, definitely had better chips. It is very odd, everyone seems to have an opinion on who does the best chips and everyone claims theirs are best. I don’t feel like we have that as much in the UK. Either way, I’m still a McDonald’s girl – with fritessaus.

I am Amsterdam

That afternoon we went to the Rijksmuseum, which is predominantly a huge dutch art gallery, but it does have a few pots and clothes and guns, etc. It’s an absolute maze in there, we kept ending up back in the main foyer somehow and having to re-enter the museum. Without sounding hideously uncultured, a lot of the art wasn’t really to my tastes, it was more just looking at it and walking on. The architecture was beautiful though, such an incredible building – especially the library which is really what I went to see, so pretty! Some of the more modern stuff I really enjoyed as well, although because it closed quite early, we only got to see half of this and missed the side that I really wanted to see, with Yves Saint Laurent and Appel. But I am here for a whole year – next time I’ll just see if I can borrow a Museum card though instead of having to pay again!

Bibliotheek

We went to Wok and Walk for dinner, which is probably one of my favourite fast food places – you get to choose what noodles you want, what sauce and what toppings and then they cook it all for you in a wok in front of you, and it just tastes soooo good! They only have them in Amsterdam here, but also in London in the UK, so if you’re passing, I would recommend it.

When we got home, we were celebrating my flatmate Bart’s 18th birthday so we got loads of chocolate cake which was so good. In my mind starting uni at 17 is so young, I mean it’s my sisters year at school, but it’s so common here. It’s probably partially because skipping (or being held back) grades isn’t really a thing at home, and everyone tends to be the same age if you are in the same academic year. I don’t think you really notice the age difference most of the time anyway, even if I am two years older than a lot of my friends.

Tuesday was back to class so I sent Abbie off exploring Amsterdam by herself. In the afternoon we had the study abroad fair where Abi, Becca and I (3 of the Leeds exchanges) tried to convince people to go to Leeds, which is slightly hard to do when you are competing against the USA and Australia and far more ‘exciting’ locations. I think we repeated the same conversation at least 20 times: “everyone in Leeds is always up for a good time”, “You’ll barely have any class and never have to buy books”, “You’ll be taught by people who are experts in their field”, “We have one of the best Student Unions in the UK, look at how much there is to do”. We also may have attempted to deter people from going to the other UK destinations (sorry guys!) but people should go to Leeds, especially if they’ll be going whilst I’m still there.

Abi, me and Becca

That evening we went to the best burger bar in town, Meneer Smakers. I had a goats cheese burger and it is potentially the best burger I have ever eaten – absolutely incredible. It’s such a nice atmosphere as well, really cute decoration. I will definitely be going again, even if I have already now sampled both the vegetarian burgers they sell – maybe I will have to try a meat burger next time and take a break from vegetarianism, or maybe I’ll just have the goats cheese one again because that was heavenly.

Geitenkaas burger

The weather has been a mixture this week, but on Friday it was absolutely beautiful and campus looked so pretty in the sun! I love living here, I am seriously never coming home.

More soon – especially on the incredible 1975 gig I went to last night, but I should definitely be revising as I have my first mid-term on Tuesday for Linguistics and I have no idea what a phoneme is… Wish me luck!

My first guest

For the majority of the past week I have had my friend, Abbie, from school (STAGs) staying with me and sleeping on my floor. It’s nice to have people to stay, not only to actually see them, but to be able to show people how beautiful my city is. It also definitely encourages me to do more touristy things – like the museums and churches. I do not envy her though, it was about a 23 hour journey on the megabus, compared to a 1 hour flight – far cheaper than flying though and some of the journey is spent on the ferry. So if you want to come and visit that might be something to look into if you want to book a last minute trip.

Lunch aan het kanaal

Saturday was all a bit of a disaster as Abbie’s coach was late and phone didn’t work abroad so I had almost no way of keeping in contact with her to find out when she would arrive, fortunately though through the kindness of others we managed to meet at Utrecht station and get the bus back to campus. We went into town in the afternoon and sat by the canals eating pizza and sandwiches which was lovely and so relaxing – loads of people were kayaking and on pedalos/canal bikes. Thrift shopping is great here, so so many vintage stores – continued with my theme of imaginative shopping by buying a bandanna and huge plaid shirt in red, I already own both these items in black. What can I say? I’m just such a creative dresser. So fashion. I also bought my first Dutch language books as I am determined to improve. I bought Rijmsoep by Roald Dahl and Harry Potter en de Steen der Wijzen (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone) – some of the name changes/translations are hilarious. Dumbledore for example is Perkamentus and the Dursleys are the Duffelings. Dirk Duffeling. No, it’s just not okay. In the evening we met up with a group of friends and watched Catching fire and ordered in pizza – oh my god Gorgonzola pizza is everything I have ever needed in my life.

Mijn nieuwe boeken

Sunday was a pretty lazy day – again we went into Utrecht and went to the Dom (but not up it) and to the Domkerk which was really nice and there was a very interesting display about Gaza in there, which suprised me as it was very explicitly pro-Gaza. I might not be religious, but church architecture does tend to be beautiful. I did however bruise my bum hugely riding on the back of the bike – sadly Abbie is better at being Dutch than me as I just do not have the balance, strength or co-ordination to carry someone on the back of my bike, which I’m sure is not surprising to anyone who knows me.

De dom

In the evening we went to a pannenkoekenhuis (pancake house), the same one in the woods that I’ve been to before, but it’s just so cute – I am going to take all my guests. I had an apple and ginger pancake which was incredible, and I’ve completely forgotten what Abbie had but I am pretty sure it had bacon on hence why I didn’t eat it. Vegetarian problems. Riding your bike there and back definitely helps with how full you are after finishing your pancake – how are they so filling?

Pannenkoeken

I’ve decided to continue the rest of Abbie’s visit on another blog post, because otherwise this will be much too long!

General catch-up

I haven’t blogged in a while mainly because I have had 2 pretty busy weeks, I hadn’t forgotten I promise! I think I’ll split it up into 2 blog posts just so there’s not too much to read.

I got my first journalism assignment back on Scottish Independence and got an A on it, so I’m very pleased with that – especially since it was so fun to write. The work is hard but I’m keeping on top of it (mostly) and doing reasonably well which I’m happy with. The past 2 weeks have been great as I’ve been interviewing people all over campus for my feature on campus life, which means I’ve met so many new people. Linguistics is still great fun and I’m loving it – I think if I had come here for my full degree it might have been an area I would have majored in, but I was instead destined for BA Politics (International). Sociology is still awful, this week my lecturer referred to women as “bitches”. Much misogyny, very objectification – on the bright side though it is super easy and I managed to get an A on my first essay by recycling previous modules. Plus I would like to thank my political theory lecturers for their very detailed powerpoints on Marx that mean I basically need to do no work for it. We’ve finally moved on from the holocaust in my violence, trauma and memory class, which is an anthropology module on genocide – super interesting but a very depressing topic for a hungover Friday morning.

The horrific hangovers have returned, but I am attributing them to my British nationality and blame that entirely for my alcohol consumption – “I can’t help it, it’s my culture.”

Last Tuesday (23/9) my lovely housemate from last year, Emily, was in Amsterdam so I popped over for the afternoon after class to see her. We spent a lot of time walking around Amsterdam, which is great because it now means there are plenty of places I can find my way to – mainly hugely touristy places though, but soon I’ll learn all the local spots. It’s definitely much nicer on a week day. It was one of the last days of nice weather, although I definitely wore too many layers. We went on a long hunt for warm stroopwafel which we eventually found in the museum square, but they were disappointingly below average – but still super tasty! We spent a lot of time sat by the I am amsterdam (Iamsterdam) sign outside the Rijksmuseum just people-watching and trying to avoid getting splashed by the dogs playing in the fountain. It made me think of Oliver, my little puppy dog. We went to find a restuarant for dinner, but food is so extortionately priced here. We did eventually find somewhere within our price budget though. Whilst we were waiting though a Dutch man behind us asked if we were waiting to be seated, and I replied yes, you know as you do – then he shouted at me for not calling him Sir. Just kept repeating “Sir…Sir…Sir” – the rudeness of it, I’m genuinely still in shock. I am not calling you sir, you are not my teacher. I am not your subordinate. Nope. The audacity of it.

Honden in die fontein

Top tip for travelling/biking in the Netherlands: Always remember where you’ve parked your bike, especially if you will be going back to it in the dark when your phone will have run out of battery for light. I didn’t. I left it at Utrecht Centraal station, which for reference easily has over 1000 bikes there and only vaguely remembered where, so spent 20 minutes searching for it in the dark. Not my finest moment.

An old picture – maar hier is mijn fiets

On the Wednesday, so the day after, I went to my friend’s birthday party in her unit which was super lovely – very “gezellig”. Everyone else’s living rooms are so pretty but ours is still quite boring, and messy as we have absolutely no storage space at all…

I have now got plans for fall break as well, Maurits and I will be joining the TripCo hitch-hike to Zaragoza in Spain which I am very excited for. I think we will also stay in Brussels for a few days after.

Dining hall food is still bad.

Sometimes I trick people in shops into thinking I speak Dutch, mainly by not saying anything, until they ask if I want a receipt or something gift wrapped and can’t understand them.

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