Ten Day Break: Belgium, Netherlands, Austria!

Ten day break crept up on me so quickly, I couldn’t believe it was already time to leave and I’m shocked its over. I had a blast travelling with six other members of my group, Erin, Mike, Alyssa, Sarah, Emily, and Colleen. We were headed to Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich, and Salzburg. Before we left, the Park Lodge had a contest for us. They told us that whoever had the cleanest cottage would get a free beer at the pub. Needless to say, we cleaned like our lives depended on it. We even baked cookies so our cottage would smell good. When we went to the pub, there were 30 baby Guinness shots lined up at the bar, apparently we all did such a good job, we were all being rewarded. A baby Guinness is Kailua with Bailey’s on top and its pretty good ;) Since the girls’ cottages were the cleanest, we also got an apple flavored shot—I was weary about drinking so much because we were getting picked up at 1am to take a night bus to Dublin and catch our 8am flight to Belgium but somehow I managed.

After traveling all night, we finally arrived in Brussels, Belgium. I hadn’t researched what there was do to un Belgium at all but I looked forward to being somewhere new. We got to our hostel and were tired so all seven of us took a nap and then we decided we should probably do something since we were only there for two nights so we walked to the Grand Place which was a beautiful square with illuminated buildings that seemed to be frosted in gold. At nighttime, it was one of the most beautiful places I’d ever been. After walking around and taking pictures there, we looked for somewhere to eat and ended up getting a cheap but delicious sandwich. After dinner we got dessert at a chocolate shop, something Belgium is known for and they were AMAZINIG! I only got two because they were a little spendy but that was definitely enough. The girl working also offered us a chocolate olive, which we were tentative to try but then she explained they just looked like olives but were just chocolate covered almonds and those were yummy too. After this we went to find a bar and ended up going to an Irish pub where I had the infamous Belgium beer, Stella Artois. It was okay but I still preferred Smithwicks; little did I know, the next night I was about to be introduced to the absolute best tasting beer. We talked to the bartender at the pub and she told us a few places we should go the next day. One of my favorite things she said to us was, “You come to Belgium for three things, work, school, or love.” It was so poetic.

Waffle!

The next day Erin and I explored the city. First we got a Belgium waffle with whipped cream, chocolate, and strawberries on it! Then we went shopping along the street with the most stores. After a few hours of this, we walked to the cathedral. In Europe there is amazingly beautiful architecture that you don’t find at home and I love it there were relics of a saint and the church was dedicated to two saints, there was glass on the floor in certain places where you could look down and see remnants of the old church before they built over it.

That night, we went for dinner at the Hard Rock Café. We ended up having to wait over three hours to be seated but we passed most of this time in a bar down the road, tasting the famous Belgium beer. Colleen’s brother had been in Brussels before so he told her what beer to try and we had two kinds that were absolutely amazing. I had a raspberry beer and a peach beer, which were incredible! They were delicious and I was sad to learn that you cannot get them anywhere else.

Canals in Amsterdam

After dinner, we were pretty tired so we went to bed and woke up the next day, ready to leave for Amsterdam.We got to the train station and found out that trains leave almost every hour so we had lunch and then I took my first train ride! The scenery on the way wasn’t that great so I slept through most of it. When we got off the train, we took a tram to a street that directions to our hostel told us to get off at. We got a little lost but ended up finding it okay. This hostel was definitely the worst one I’ve stayed in yet. It was dirty and I felt so gross there. We tried to spend as little time as possible in it because it was torturous. I was sleepy and sick of eating food that I was unfamiliar with so we went to McDonald’s for dinner J That night we went to a pub crawl that took us to various bars in Amsterdam. It was a good way to find fun places to go and there were a lot of people our age there.

The next morning it was raining so we went to the Heineken brewery. I heard that it was a really good tour but it was a lot more fun than I expected. It was self-guided and it took us about four hours to get through it all because there was so much to do. We starred in our own music video, learned how to properly drink a Heineken, tasted wort which is the liquid extracted after mashing, learned how to pour a Heineken, and my favorite part, and experienced in 4d what it was like to be brewed. We were malted, boiled, mashed and put through the process of making a beer! The Heineken brewery was my favorite thing we did in Amsterdam!

We were leaving on a night train to Salzburg the next night but we had all day to tour the city so in the morning we went to the Anne Frank house. I went to Auschwitz earlier in the semester so I was not really looking forward to the feeling I got from being there again. Despite this, it was interesting to see the house where her diary takes place and to imagine how terrible it was to be trapped inside day and night.

After the Anne Frank house, Mike, Colleen, Emily and I went to the Van Gogh exhibit. There were several other impressionist artists and the exhibit took you through his development as an artist, which I really liked. I haven’t done a lot of art since high school and it was impressive to be in the presence of such famous works.

The night train was an interesting experience. The beds were tiny and the room was cramped but we all found it pretty funny. The other girls went to play cards but I was tired so I stayed and tried to sleep. I was in a half-sleeping state when I heard a knock at the door and an accented voice stay “Police! Police!” I had no idea what was going on and it scared me a little but the man explained to me that I was crossing the border into Germany and he needed to see my passport. After this, I slept off and on until we reached Munich the next morning. It was a gorgeous day and we checked into our hostel and then took a much-needed nap. Thankfully, this hostel was much nicer than our previous one and I took a nice hot shower and felt clean again.

Later in the day, Mike, Colleen, Sarah, and I walked around the city of Munich. It was sunny and warm and a perfect day. We did a little shopping and I got a new dress for thanksgiving! Then we met up with the other half of our group and went to the beer garden. There is a stand where you buy your beer and then picnic tables where you sit. I’ve never been to a beer garden before so it was really fun.

In the morning, Colleen and I walked around Munich while the others went to Dachau, a concentration camp near Munich. I didn’t go because I had already been to one and Colleen and I both wanted to get to Salzburg earlier so we spent the morning in Munich and then hopped on a train.

This time, the train ride was beautiful. We passed through the cutest towns and I thought it looked just like a ski resort. When we got closer to Salzburg, there were snowcapped mountains and it was gorgeous. Our train had no stops so it only took about an hour and a half to get there. We waited at McDonalds for Jack and Joe, who are both studying abroad in Austria this semester, to pick us up. It was Colleen’s 21^st birthday so they greeted us with a case of Stiegel, the beer brewed in Salzburg. Four other people from Ireland were also visiting the Austria group so that night we went out with a ton of people for Colleen’s birthday. We went to a beer house called the Augustiner and it was crazy. You grabbed a mug from a shelf, paid for it, had a guy fill it up, and then went into a huge room that looked like a giant cafeteria. It was a lot of fun to see everyone from St. Ben’s and St. Johns!

The next day, Jack brought us to a really good pizza place and then showed us around Salzburg. He showed us a bunch of places in the city and then we went to his school, which was incredible. It’s an all glass building and we went up onto the roof where we could see the fortress and the mountains. Erin really wanted to go to the gazebo from the Sound of Music so we walked there the next day.

Jack's school--so pretty!

Salzburg was beautiful!

On Saturday, Erin, Jack and I climbed Gaisberg, a 1288-meter hill that is more like a mountain. They are both in much better shape than I am so it was tough but it was totally worth it and a great way to end our ten day break.

I had so much fun on break and I went places that I hadn’t heard a lot about before going there but the group I traveled with was great. We went with the flow and we explored each city we were in. It was a nice break from the slow pace of Spiddal but if I never stay in a hostel again I would be ecstatic. It marks the middle of my semester abroad and I was happy to begin my journey back to the Park Lodge but also sad that my trip was over and that December was looming so quickly. I had an amazing time travelling in Europe and I know that I will never again have the opportunity to do anything like this and I feel so lucky!