food | Postcards: from Cacti to Copenhagen

So, long time no see. This last week has been incredibly i n s a n e. As I may have said, DIS gives students a week to travel and sight see in Europe, and this last week was my travel week. I intended to right a blog post on it, but I just never found the time, as you can see.

And, to be quite honest, I still haven’t quite got my life together hahaha. I came home late Sunday night after a 5 hour train ride from Hamburg, promptly fell asleep, and upon return I tried my best to adult. I unpacked and threw my clothes in the laundry, which is a real accomplishment for me because I’m really known to live out of my suitcase for as long as humanly possible. Upon return there were several tests and assignments that were needing to be tended to, so I was absent from my blog for even longer. So sorry about that.

The sun is setting in Denmark around 16.30 (4:30pm) now, and it’s really made me feel a little robbed. My friend Jordan remarked that I look a little tanner now, and I’m lamenting my loss of sunlight honestly. As an Arizonan, it’s really jarring. It’s also fairly chilly now, so we’ll see how I adjust to all of this new found information.

Anyway, my travel week was to various locations in Spain and Portugal. The itinerary was packed and crazy, but I don’t regret a single moment. My body aches and my mind is really fatigued, but I knew I needed to give you guys a peek, so here’s how we waddled our way through our travel break with random photo dumps.

1 – Holding your pee waddle

If you didn’t already know, in addition to water not being free, in most places the bathroom isn’t either. Public places like train stations usually have a small fee to use the bathroom. So you have to pay to intake water and expel it in Europe, wooo. We found ourselves doing the “have-to-pee-right-this-second” waddle many times throughout our journey, and it was hilarious and humbling all at the same time. Why pay when you can waddle desperately back to your AirBnb?

2 – “It was colder than I expected but I won’t admit it” waddle

I know mom, I should’ve brought a jacket. The days were sooo wonderfully warm and sunny though, and it was just such a bother to drag a jacket with us all day long. So, like the reckless young adults we are: we just didn’t. It was fine most nights, but man, some of them really really tested us. Especially our first night back to Copenhagen, as we weren’t going to back a bunch of cold weather clothes for a trip that had not a single day under 60 degrees F.

3 -“It’s raining and I’ve slipped on the cobblestone/tile more times than I can count” waddle

Lisbon’s tiles were eye catching, and complimentary to Barcelona’s colorful Gaudi, but man, the tiles and cobblestone on the ground were not friendly to our strides, and there was precarious waddling to get up and down the hills without actually busting our asses. This waddle consists of a lot of short, controlled strides and angry locals murmuring behind you for being an amateur.

This one is also applicable when you find yourself in the middle of a tropical storm headed to Cabo da Roca, the most Western Point in Europe. There was a lot of nervous laughter on our bus over as there was lighting and thunder at the same time, signaling that the storm was directly over head. This waddle was prevalent as we ran around trying to see the sights without getting hit by lightning and slip on the mud, but our luck turned around and the clouds broke for about half an hour, and we even got a rainbow!

4 – The Hangry waddle

If you’ve never done this one in your life: you’re lying. The one where you cross your arms and don’t speak to anyone in your group because someone might get murdered. There were more than a few of these moments on the trip, and in Spain we learned a very valuable lesson: the city has a siesta, and this means that when for some reason, you decide that lunch is to be served at 3pm, everything will be closed.

There was a sign at the THIRD tapas bar we tried to go to that actually asked people to be considerate of sleeping neighbors. The Hangry waddle was out in full force on our last day in Madrid, but that’s okay, we eventually scouted tapas and a whole jar of sangria.

We also remedied our tensions with a sunset and a view from the top of Madrid, which was a fitting way to end our time in Spain.

5 – “I’m trying to take a photo and walk at the same time” waddle

My personal favorite, and maybe my predominant gait at all times. Really I could only marvel at some of the amazing sights that we saw. This was especially the case when Tejas took us on a 10 minute tour of Valencia which he thought was marvelous and I almost had a heart attack, as we arrived to our train to Madrid 5 minutes before it left.

There were many occasions where we would just gasp and laugh because how did we get so lucky to travel and see what we saw? It really blows my mind. From all the Gaudi and gothic architecture in Barcelona, to Valencia’s vaguely Rome-esque vibe, to Madrid’s hustle and bustle, Lisbon’s peaks and valleys, and Sintra’s breathtaking views, it’s a lot to process.

One of these days when I’m not slammed with work I will hopefully have some more reflective writing to give you guys about this trip, because man was it the trip of a lifetime. But for now, enjoy this little peak into what a week of sights and sounds was like. I’m so excited to be back in Copenhagen.

Wish you were here,

Rigel

Welcome to another installment of “how to” aka, probably terrible life advice from Rigel. In was some poor planning on my part, I got home from Prague on Monday morning, and left for Brussels on Friday night. It was rough, and my body hates me, my feet are swollen but I loved my experiences. You’re only young once right? Here’s how you can spend 8 hours in two different cities or another really really persuasive argument.

In Amsterdam:

Kacey and I took a Flixbus from Brussels to Amsterdam. We ran like hell to the bus because they’re always off to the side of the station and sometimes it’s just a draw of luck, or if you’re like me, you’re too optimistic about how much time you actually have to do things. We got on the bus and luckily there wasn’t a lot of people on it and I got two seats to myself so I slept for almost the whole bus ride.

Our only tickets and trains for the day was the one from the station the bus dropped us off in to the central station. We spent the next 8 hours on foot or sitting. I still really haven’t fully recovered from long study tour + Prague and my feet are actually going to fall off, but #noregrets.

We actually legitimately had no plans for the day except for the two things we had booked for the day, so here’s our city guide as told by two people who combined: a) didn’t know that Amsterdam was famous for having weed and b) didn’t wear thick soled shoes and suffered. Names have been removed for confidentiality.

The train dropped us off at Central Station and we just let our feet carry us and ultimately we ended up doing:

The Red Light District
The Botanical Gardens
The Auschwitz Memorial
All of the canals. Every single one.

Just kidding, I’m sure we didn’t see all of them but we saw some really beautiful ones. Here’s my photo drop:

From here we made our way to our two appointments for the day.

The Van Gogh Museum:

Now, this was probably the most I’ve ever spent on a museum ticket, but it was so worth it. (~$20) I’ve always really loved Van Gogh, although I’ve never studied art history or any kind of art technique besides using basic mediums. I guess that’s why I love Van Gogh so much, his art is accessible and his story is a humble (and sad) one, on top of that I find it very aesthetically pleasing. The museum is also laid out in a manner that makes it engaging and also a learning experience. It’s chronological but strategically broken up into periods of his life. I didn’t take photos of the things in the museum, but you can find them on Kacey’s blog if you’re interested.

Some of Van Gogh’s letters

The Anne Frank House:

This was one both of us wanted to make sure to get to, and I heavily recommend you do too if you’re visiting Amsterdam. My history background focused mostly on everything from WWI to the end of the Cold War, so this was something of particular interest to me. Anne Frank’s Diary was one of the first non-fiction books I read, before I even knew what the Holocaust or WWI was. I think it was within the first year that I learned how to read in English. As we waited to get into the museum, it had poured down rain, and the gloomy chilly sky was a fitting precursor. An audio guide through the house is part of your admission ($9!!!) and it’s an immersive and emotional one. To walk through the rooms that this family stayed in and try to imagine the terror that they were gripped with is harrowing. Although it was grey when we left, leaving the house after the sun had set really put the emotions we were feeling in frame.

Outside of the Anne Frank house

I only took a photo of the outside of the house, it felt really personal and emotional to be inside, so I just really found myself not reaching for my phone as I often do.

In Brussels:

Eat your way through Brussels. That’s the answer. Although, don’t do it on a Sunday. Kacey had a lot of difficulty finding vegan places that were open, as the city isn’t the most animal friendly on Sundays. A lot of places were closed and we think that definitely impacted our impression, especially since we came from bustling Amsterdam.

Either way, we still had a good time. Again, only transportation was pretty much from the Airbnb to the city center and the train station where our buses would pick us up/drop us off. If I was to say Amsterdam was walkable, Brussels was even more so. Most of the touristy stuff was within a 5 minute walking radius of the Grand Place, which was a really nice break for our feet. Although we wanted to get to the Atomium, I was aggressively pushed aside by middle aged men at Delirium cafe trying to get a beer, and it took way longer than expected. I had a yummy red beer and a Trappist beer which I didn’t like as much, but I think it was my fault for trying another hoppy beer.

Kacey and I essentially wandered the radius around the Grand Place and ate everything we could get our hands on. I had a Liege waffle with dark chocolate and bananas for breakfast. There are two kinds of Belgian waffles, the square doughy kind and the Liege – crispier with bits of sugar inside that caramelize while cooking. It was heavenly.

Waffles for breakfast is never a bad idea

We then continued our circuit and had our body weights in chocolate by going into every single chocolate store we found and picking up samples. I picked up some truffles to take home, and we briefly saw the Tintin boutique.

Random Hall

Tintin

Grand Place

The Pissing Girl

Grand Place

The Pissing Boy

Then I got to the star of the show: BELGIAN FRITES. Apparently if you call them french fries the Belgians get really offended, as they do theirs special. I had classic fries with curry ketchup which is a special delicacy I fell in love with in Berlin two summers ago, that I could easily make at home but don’t. Belgian fries are double (or triple) fried, and I really love my fries crispy so this was a total hit for me.

Belgian Fries

We finished off our trip with our stop at Delirium, which has over 3000 beers and they hold the Guinness world record for most beers available. It was a cool atmosphere and we sat at a barrel table. From here we made our way to our shuttle to the airport, and it really was a wonderful, whirlwind of a trip.

In bed:

Alternatively to all this, you could get your full 8 hours rest in bed, which I think I’ve failed to do since going on study tour. Sleep is important y’all.