There's a Piece of Maria in Every Song that I Sing

Venice photos. These don't even begin to do justice to that amazing city.

You Can't Count On Me

I win the award for worst blog upkeep. I have so much to type, so many pictures to share, but now I'm in my final week and one half :( of the session so the work is piling up. Plus last night HOLLAND DOMINATED THE DEFENDING WORLD CUP CHAMPS IN ITALY TO WIN THE GAME 3 ZERO!!! So... things have been busy here. I have a ten page paper that I'm trying to get done this week in the midst of flying to London for 12 hours before I leave for Paris on Friday.

So.

Needless to say, it's hard to find time to sit. Except right now when i should be reading about 15th century Flemish Primitive artists and portraiture. Which I'm going to go do. The possibility of me selling my soul for money to buy a little dutch cottage with a horse in the yard and never coming home is getting more and more likely.

Love to Dad, who feels neglected. And also Jill who would get a kick out of this whole ridiculous experience.

No One is Watching but Me

More Bruges photos...

I May Take a Holiday in Spain

I am back in the castle. "Why," you may be asking yourself, "would Stephanie be in Holland when she is scheduled to stay in Barcelona for another night?"

After a lovely stay in Venice (more blogging and photos of that trip soon than you will probably ever care to read and see) my friend Alessandra and I flew to Spain for our 4 night trip to Barcelona. When we had made the reservations a week or two ago, we were also traveling with one of our guy friends. He changed his plans last minute in Venice. We got into Spain around 8pm on Wednesday, dropped our bags at our hostel and went to wander the city and grab dinner.

A word on the hostel: definitely a cool experience to stay in a youth hostel. Kids travel from all over (we met Canadians, Americas, Aussies, and a couple of Swedish boys) and it's a really neat way to make friends to go out with in foreign cities. Yet, I've also never been one for roommates, so the slamming around drunk at 4am didn't quite sit well with me. All in all though, I'm glad we tried it.

Anyways, the first night out at dinner, some boys walked up to my friend and started grabbing her and trying to kiss her... The waitress came out and yelled at them to leave us alone, but still. Sort of shook us up. We woke up the next morning ready to give Barcelona a clean slate and wandered all along the Barceloneta down to the city beach. The beach was gorgeous and we fell asleep in the sun for the morning. We awoke, however, to a group of 6 British girls yelling and crying. One girl's purse had been stolen right out from under them, passport and all. Alessandra and I had left all but 20 euros and our keys locked in the hostel and slept on top of our purses, but the incident kind of freaked us out. We went for lunch and got lost down a bad alley. We couldn't walk a block without some boys yelling or whistling. As much as I like to think I'm an independent woman type, the fact is I would have felt a lot safer with some of our boy friends to hang with.

That second night in Spain was the only time I've really felt homesick the entire trip. My friend and I thought about going to Rome to meet up with the rest of our friends, but it was pretty pricey this late to book those flights. Long story short, we got our hostel refunded and caught the first flight back to Holland. It's nice to be back, resting... I didn't realize how much a week and a half of traveling had wiped me out. I slept in late today and we borrowed some bikes from friends and rode the countryside for a bit. Tomorrow we're going to head back to Amsterdam for the day.

A part of me is sad we didn't try to push through being scared and tough out the rest of the stay, but all in all I'm happy we chose to come back early. It was certainly fun to get a feel for Spain though (that countryside is gorgeous) and the morning we left we stopped in to tour the Sagrada Familia Cathedral (pictured), which is just about the most creative, amazing thing I have ever seen. I hope from the bottom of my heart that I get to come back there someday. I love Holland. It's people and landscape has become very homey and familiar, and driving up to the "Verboden" gate felt almost as nice as when Mom takes me to In-N-Out when I first get off of the plane coming home.

Mucho blogging to come. Love from the Netherlands.

I guess I'll be leaving soon

I'm 8 minutes away from leaving for Venice. I swear I've started to post a Belgium/castle life blog about 7 times this week, but it's hard to sit in a room alone in front of a laptop for very long when you live in a castle. Sketching, the bar down the street and playing board games takes precedence. Sorry :(

Anyways, the plan is Venice for a week and Spain until the following Sunday. SO stoked. I've made my first travel error :/ Booked the wrong hostel... but my roommate is just going to switch over to mine, so it works out. I've overpacked like you won't believe. But it's Spain. So I have no shame.

My parents rule. I love this trip. I think I'm going to have to be dragged home...

Perfect Blue Buildings

More Belgium. I've got a couple of really great memories from this trip. One is the last night before we left, 6 of us went to this really tiny pub in this back alley of downtown Bruges and grabbed some beers and played card games for a bit. I was really nervous about the type of people on this trip before I got here... I've had little patience for those who are hard to get along with lately. I lucked out a ton, there's a really nice group of kids on this trip who are awesome and easy to travel with, stay around the castle and watch movies, and do the nightlife thing.

Best moment of the trip thus far came on Saturday, a couple of hours before we left Bruges. I had separated from the group to go find a calling card (sorry parents, by the way, for my terrible math skills which lead to the multitude of 3am phone calls) and after acquiring one and placing said middle of the night phone call, I gave way to my growling tummy and purchased a paper cone full of a belgium delicacy: french fries. But not any french fries. French fries with dipping sauces. I love sauces. They smother the fries in any sauce you choose (mayo is the traditional, but I couldn't bring myself to eat that much of it). Me and my saucy fries then went to sit in the middle of Market Square on some steps of an oldish looking building and people watch. Just... happy. Wrote in my journal a bit, relaxed. I was perfectly content right in that moment.

Here is my biggest complaint about Belgium: my first real taste of anti-Americanism. Granted, we were, for the most part, a group of about 10 kids excited and loud about being in Europe. Still, we were refused service at a burger place because nobody ordered any Belgian food (a direct quote: "You eat the burger, you sleep with the burger, you wake up with the burger") and were simply ignored for 45 minutes at another. It's really sad and feels awful, not only that most of the time they can tell we're American before we even speak, but being ignored at this one specific diner put everyone in the worst mood.

The churches in Bruges were great... nice to study the Flemish Primitive artists by actually seeing the paintings and architecture first hand. I don't like waffles but the Belgium chocolate was AMAZING. Once they put two and two together and figure out they need to dunk some strawberries in that stuff, they'll be rolling in dough. The nights were really great in Belgium, it was fun to do the bar scene there because it was very manageable... not big and overwhelming, but definitely easy to find a couple places to dance in. All in all, I found Belgium lovely. Due to the public transportation strike we didn't get to travel for the weekend after. I'm putting Brussels atop my list of places to come back and visit.

Have You Seen Me Lately?

Some Belgium Pictures. Enjoy :)