Week 11 in Sevilla
Entry 12
The Week
As usual, not much to say about the week. I had classes and tutoring as usual!
The Weekend
This weekend started early because we had a week off of school for Semana Santa so that meant a long trip which we started Thursday night! Isabel and I landed in Amsterdam after 11pm where we met with my cousin, Tori, who is studying in Dublin this semester. The Amsterdam airport was a nightmare, and we had about twenty minutes before the last train for the next five hours left so we were scrambling to find each other in the airport. We thankfully did but then separated at the trains because Isabel was in a different hostel than us. Tori and I took the train and then from the station, we walked about ten minutes to the hostel which wasn’t a bad walk since it seemed like we were in a nice part of the city, and it was extremely well lit for being almost 1am but maybe I’m just not used to cities. We checked in and were warned about the narrow and steep stairs (we were on the 5th floor) and that was an understatement. Everything else about the hostel was quite nice and Tori and I had the good luck of being placed in the same room, but at 1am I thought those stairs were going to kill me.
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| apparently surviving Dutch stairs is a local joke because of how narrow and steep they are |
Friday
On Friday morning we met Isabel for breakfast, but she had to travel further so Tori and I wandered the streets a bit on our way to the restaurant. I think Amsterdam had the most idyllic streets so far, I wanted to take a picture of every bridge. There were also tulips everywhere, both in flower boxes on the streets but also at tables at all of the restaurants.
After breakfast we wandered shops a bit while we planned out what we wanted to do that day and booked a few things and then ran around the city trying to make sure that we made it to everything!
We started with a canal cruise (we even sprung for the option with crackers and wine, very fancy—at least by college kids' standards) which was lovely because we had nice weather, were able to see different parts of the city, and our guide had some fun facts for us. I learned that buildings in Amsterdam were built narrow and tall because they were charged property taxes based off of width and that they lean forward on purpose. Tilting to either side isn’t intentional but tilting forward was supposed to prevent damage to the house if they were hauling objects up to the top of buildings where they often store things. They pull things up with a rope and hook that is above the top window and the idea is that if the object swings, but the house is tilted forward, it wouldn’t hit the house. There were also a couple of locals on the boat sharing their local knowledge and opinions, so it was a fun ride.
We went to a cheese museum after the boat ride where you got to try a bunch of cheeses for free and I even found a penny press machine, so I have a little souvenir from the cheese museum!
From there we headed to a different part of the city for a cooking class where we made stroopwafel! We walked about 45 minutes for it but didn’t mind at all because it was just such a pretty walk.
The class was really fun, and I didn’t even burn myself so a positive experience overall, although stroopwafel has cinnamon and caramel, 2 things I dislike, so the food itself wasn’t my favorite.
After the class, we got poke bowls for lunch and then, of course, some ice cream.
We went to the Red Lights Secrets Museum in the evening, which was really interesting, but we didn't want to be in that area of town too late, so we went back to our hostels after the museum for an early night, as we were waking up earlier Saturday to go to the tulip gardens.
Saturday
On Saturday we went to the Keukenhof garden! Which was basically the objective of the trip because it was tulip season! The gardens were absolutely beautiful! We took a bus there and that, with the Keukenhof ticket, was the most expensive part of the trip, but it was completely worth it. We spent a few hours there and we had some more ice cream which really made the garden experience perfect. I wasn't feeling too great on this morning, and I only felt worse as the day went on, but I pushed through for the gardens and thank goodness for that.
After the gardens, we stopped at a cafe for a quick lunch so we could get back towards the shops before they closed so everyone could get their last souvenirs. We also stopped by the Sam and Julia Museum which was a free little shop/museum with mini scenes of little mice doing different things based on a children's series named Sam and Julia. It was a cute pitstop on our way back to the hostel.
I was feverish and exhausted by this point, so we went back to the hostel for a short nap with the intention of resting and then going to dinner and walking around a bit more, but I ended up just calling it an early night, unfortunately. Being sick in Amsterdam was a bit of a bummer but at least it was towards the end of our trip, so we had already done everything we had specifically set out to do and a girl in my hostel room heard my cousin checking on me and offered me NyQuil so best case of a bad scenario.
Sunday
On Sunday morning, we headed back to the airport to catch our flight to Dublin, where we were going to stay with my cousin for a few days! Seats were assigned randomly since we didn't pay to choose our seats, and I got incredibly lucky and had a row to myself on a mostly full flight. Once again, traveling with a fever is awful, but it was the best case in a not-so-great situation!
Food
Breakfast on Friday was another attempt to try something new but not too far out of my wheelhouse; I asked the waitress about the pancake special of the day and heard the word chocolate and passion fruit sauce and figured it was something I’d enjoy: 10/10, pancakes and sauce were delicious and the fruit served with it was SO good and I also had a glass of chocolate milk as I always do when that’s an option. The poke bowl for lunch was good, I always love getting vegetables when possible because I don't feel like they're very well incorporated in the Spanish diet. The ice cream was chocolate ganache flavored, and it tasted like brownie batter:10/10! Ice cream at the gardens was 8/10 because it was overpriced for regular vanilla but oh well, I wanted ice cream while I looked at flowers, worth it.
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