Mayonnaise, Curry Ketchup, Samurai, Andalouse, Provencale, Cocktail, Americaan...

There is a saying here that I've heard a few times that you know you've been in Brussels too long if you can name 7 sauces for Frites. Being the center of the European Union and many NGOs it is incredibly common for people to live here for a few months or a year and then return to another place. As you can see, I have no problem naming seven sauces.

I'm incredibly sad to be leaving Belgium in just a few days. I really love it here, and I'm sad to leave a place that means so much to me, especially when I don't know if or when I'll be back. This has really been a great experience. I've learned so much, and I know that there is still so much more to learn in Brussels but, alas, all good things have to come to an end.

4 months ago I was sitting on a plane wondering if I was prepared for the challenge of living in a foriegn city. I'm proud to say that I have succeeded in this, and tasks that seemed daunting to me before now seem so simple.

Though I am sad to leave, I need to focus on the adventures that lay ahead. Tuesday I leave for a short bit of travel through Norway, Austria, and Slovenia (with one day in Trieste, Italy). Summer is big question mark (but what could be a greater adventure then the completely unknown?). I have my senior year ahead of me, and graduation next May.

I'm off to go pick up my dear little bro and my good friend Anna from the airport. I can't wait to show them around Brussels, and then run around Europe with them!

Thanks for reading my blog over the past few months! Sorry I've been bad at updating! This is the last update for now, though I promise to post stories and pictures of Norway, Austria, and Slovenia once I get home!

Much Love,

Em

For Kim...

So my dear friend Kim is a loyal reader of my blog, and she has recently pointed out that it has been a long time since I posted. Yes, I have been lazy lately, but I have also been incredibly busy. Still, the lovely Kim has such faith that I will post that she refuses to even ask me about my travels, because she so firmly believes I will update. Well Kim, and other loyal readers (Hi Grandmas and Grandpas!) I will push through. I do have two papers due Friday, though, so I'm afraid you're getting the sparknotes version.

Italy!
We were lucky enough to get two weeks off from classes here for Spring break, and we decided to take advantage of the time and head of to a place that needed time to get to and time to explore, so we headed out to Italy. We hopped on an EasyJet flight to Milan and we were on our way.

Milan- We made a loop around Italy, so we both started and ended our journey in Milan. Milan was a very beautiful city, and I could see how it would be a really amazing time if you were really into fashion, had an unlimited budget, and wanted to just spend the day shopping for fabulous clothes before having a long dinner and then hitting up the clubs. Because I don't fit that mold it wasn't my favorite city, but there were some highlights.

I truly enjoyed touring the Duomo, napping up on the roof of the Duomo, and going to Easter mass at the Duomo. I also enjoyed people watching at the Duomo, and attempting to chat with the security guard at the Duomo, who seemed to think that "Michigan" was the coolest word he had ever heard. Basically, I loved the Duomo.

I also loved the cool Gelato man that served us our first and last gelato in Italy, and remembered us and gave us an extra scoop when we came back the second time. Which was pretty awesome.

Milan Duomo

Venice- The Second leg of the Journey was Venice. Venice is absolutely beautiful! Such a beautiful city surrounded by gorgeous bright blue water with little canals weaving through the city. I loved just standing on the bridge and watching the Gondolas go by below. It was simply amazing.

Highlights include:
-Going to the top of St. Mark's (so amazing!)
-riding the waterbus (it was an experience)
- staying the the coolest campground ever that was quite a ways away from venice (again, an experience, in a good way)
-the Italian Sandwich maker that offered to teach me Italian

Venice from the Top of St. Mark's

Rome- it was absolutely wonderful! I completely adored every part of Rome, from the gorgeous Forums and Colosseum, the the high walls of Vatican city. The first day in Rome was spent exploring the Forums and the Colosseum. It was really neat to be standing in something that was so old. Later, we headed out to see the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain, and spent lots of time just walking around the city. Actually, much of the day in general was spent walking to something historical and beautiful, and then stopping to chill out near it for awhile. It was really relaxing and nice.

My second day in Rome was spent mostly at the Vatican. We set out early in the morning to beat the lines at the Vatican museum, though we still had to wait for about an hour. Then we wandered around the Vatican museum for awhile, appreciating all the interesting art. The sistine Chapel was really cool, it actually looked 3-dimensional to me.

I separated from two of my companions to go meet another in front of St. Peter's. There was much confusion, though, and with a dead phone I as unable to meet up with anyone, so I set off to explore Rome alone. I actually really enjoyed myself doing it. I went into St. Peter's (AMAZING), then check out the musuem of religious artifacts, which was also pretty sweet. Then I went to the top of St. Peters, which was also really awesome.

After that I left Vatican city and set out to explore Rome solo. I went to some beautiful churches, saw the Scala Santa, picked up my tickets to the Papal audience, and hit up Mass in English. Overall, it was really peaceful and beautiful, and I had a great afternoon.

The next day Lori and I woke up early to head to the Papal audience, which was really wonderful. It was so fun being among so many excited people, and it was really cool getting to see the Pope. That was truly a highlight of my trip.

Highlights include:
-Pope Benedict
-Staying a hostel called "Hotel Michigan"
-The Vatican
-climbing the Scala Santa
-delicious food and wine
-the museum of religious artifacts
-living through an earthquake (it really wasn't that strong in Rome)

Inside the Coloseum

Florence- I had very few expectations for Florence, but I was very much impressed by how beautiful it was! The first thing we did after checking into our awesome hostel was head out to the Piazza Michelangelo for the sunset. Gorgeous. Then we hung out by the river on a beautiful bridge, ate a great dinner, and then walked past many beautiful buildings on our walk home.

Highlights include:
-Piazza Michelangelo
-beautiful scenery in general
-delicious food
-a 3 course dinner with wine for 12 euro
-Art everywhere
-hanging out around the duomo
-eating Vanilla gelato that reminded me of Greenfield village's frozen custard

View of Florence from Piazza Michelangelo

San Gimignano and Sienna- While staying in Florence we took a daytrip to San Gimiginano and also Seinna. SG was amazingly beautiful. I was simply blown away by the gorgeous hills and vineyards of Tuscany. The town was quaint, but very beautiful, and the scenery around it was simply amazing.

Yay Tuscany!

Sienna was also quite beautiful. It was larger then SG. We hung out in the Campo, and took a short walking tour around town. It was so nice because you'd just be walking down a road and then out of nowhere you would see a breathtaking view. I really enjoyed it and am jealous Savvy was there for so long.

Sienna!

Highlights include:
-amazing wine
-beautiful scenery
-basking in the warm sun
-people watching

Cinque Terre- this does not refer to a town but rather to 5 towns. These towns are quite close together, and are right on the sea. They are connected by a train, but also by a series of paths, and the thing to do in Cinque Terre is to hike along these paths and get the gorgeous views of these towns, the hills, and of the sea.

When we first arrived we checked into our adorable hostel and then headed down to grab a spot on the rocks to watch the sunset and sip some wine. It was so relaxing, and really just wonderful.

The next day, Lori and I woke up early to hike the 9 km trail. It was really really wonderful. Hiking the trails was a highlight of Italy, and also ranks up there as a highlight of my time in Europe in general. The trails present glorius views. We came across winding streams, beautiful flowers, many many photographic moments, and many cats. Some of the trails were pretty challenging (I swear at one point we walked uphill for forty minutes straight) but it was truly an amazing way to experience Italy. Each of the towns were beautiful as well, and at the end we were rewarded with a nice beach to relax on. We were hoping to swim, but the water was still quite cold, but it was thrilling just to dip our sore feet into the sea.

Highlights include:
-hiking the trails
-stopping for a delicious breakfast along the way
-laughing at the strange toilets
-dipping my feet into the sea
-everything was a highlight, it was just beautiful

Cinque Terre!

Lake Como- After cinque terre we headed back to Milan which is where we were going to fly out from. Having seen much of what Milan had to offer, Lori and I set out on a daytrip to Lake Como. This was another real highlight of the trip. It was absolutely gorgeous! It's just this giant lake, with clear clear water, framed by snow capped mountains and small towns with pretty architecture.

We began the day in Lecco where we had a nice breakfast, watched lots of windsurfers, and took a lovely stroll before hitting up the ferry to the next town. After a long ferry ride (which, although slow, was a wonderful way to see the lake) we stopped in Bellagio for a bit. This town was wonderful! We found a great little restaurant where we sat on the patio and enjoyed handmade lasagna with a glass of the local wine. Then we went down by the lake to just enjoy the scenery. We lounged for a bit, enjoying the sunshine and gazing at the Alps. I read my book for a bit, then took a short nap in the grass. It was wonderful. Then back on the long ferry to Como, where we needed to go to catch a train back to Milan. Como was beautiful as well, though it was much more touristy then the other two places.

Highlights:
-Mountains
-being woken up from my nap by a little green lizard crawling on my leg
-playing with an adorable Italian child that had clearly just learned to walk
-handmade lasagna
-windsurfers
-clean beautiful water
-white chocolate Gelato

Beautiful Lake Como

Overall, Italy was simply amazing. It was a beautiful country and I feel like I could have stayed forever.

After returning from Italy I got straight to work on a research paper. Once I finished that I headed up to Amsterdam to meet my parents.

My parents visited!

Upon arriving in Amsterdam I tried to call my parents but found that, for some reason my phone did not want to call them. Thankfully, I had written down the hotel address, though I had no clue how to find it. After some problem-solving on my part, and a run-in with a biker (I was in Amsterdam for less then half and hour and, yes, I got hit by a bike) I found their hotel.

It was really great to see my parents! We were all pretty tired and were planning on having a laid-back night, so we went for a stroll around town, made a short stop in the red light district (which was interesting, to say the least), and then hopped on a boat for a boat tour, which was really great. It was wonderful to see Amsterdam from the canals, and to learn a little history about the city.

The next day we woke up bright and early and hopped on a train to the airport where we could catch a bus out to the Keukenhof Gardens to see the tulips. Thanks to careful planning, we had bought our e-tickets in advance and headed out to the Gardens.

Tulips (pic stolen from dad!)

When we got there we were stunned by the amount of people that were there! You couldn't step in any direction without nearly running into that. Despite that, the tulips were gorgeous! Everywhere you looked there were beautiful flowers, planted meticulously in beautiful formations. I think we spent close to 3 hours just wandering around looking at flowers, and I am pretty sure that there were still things that we missed!

Dad and I walking on water in the Gardens (photo credit:Dad)

We headed back to the city and found our way to the Ann Frank Museum. It was very sad, but I'm really glad that we did it.

The next morning we caught a train back to Brussels and spent the day seeing some of the sights. It was surreal showing my parents around Brussels, but it was also really nice. I think that they really enjoyed seeing the city.

The next morning I got up and went to class, while my parents went on a walk that I had mapped out for them the night before. The only problem is that I didn't specify which direction they were supposed to turn once they got out of their hotel. They had a 50/50 chance of getting it right, but sadly they guess wrong. When I got to the place I was supposed to meet them I started to get nervous, but they ended up taking a cab and it all turned out fine.

We headed over the Parliament, and I showed them around my office and the Parliament as a whole. We went to the canteen to grab lunch, and I'm glad that they got to experience the chaos first-hand, haha.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Brussels and hanging out in the beautiful parks, and then we called it an early night, as we had a big day planned for the next day.

We woke up early and hopped on a train to Oostende, a coastal town on the North Sea. The town itself probably would have been a lot nicer in the Summer or on a Saturday when more people would have been there, so I didn't find the town to be all the impressive. The coastline, though, was quite nice, and it was really fun walking along the sandy beaches and seeing the North Sea.

On the way back we had the option of stopping at Ghent or Bruges, considering that they were both on the way back. Since it was a Tuesday and I figured it wouldn't be that crowded, we stopped in Bruges. It was beautiful as always, and I think that my parents really enjoyed it too.

Having Deb and Jeff come to visit was great!It was really fun to show them around and I'm super glad they made it out.

Geneva, Switzerland!

Several months ago Lori and I decided that we wanted to take a trip the first weekend in May. So we compiled a list of places that we wanted to go and decided to go to the one with the cheapest airfare. Lucky for us, that landed us a trip to Geneva Switzerland!

The trip to Geneva was great, and hassle free. We arrived late on Friday night to check into what is quite possibly the nicest hostel I've ever seen, with a really helpful staff. They gave us our free transportation pass (tourists in Geneva get to ride public transport for free!) and gave us directions to all the places we wanted to go.

The next morning we headed out to see the U.N. and hit up the Red Cross Museum. I probably wouldn't have chosen to go into the red cross musuem, but Lori suggested it and I am really glad that she did. The museum taught about some really interesting history, and was one of the highlights of Geneva.

Next, we hopped on a bus to the outskirts of town, walked across the French border (soooo, anticlimactic. There was literally no customs or Border security), and bought tickets to ride a cable car up to the top of a mountain. The cable car ride was really fun and the view from the mountain was beautiful. We spent some time hiking around and lounging about in meadows. It was really gorgeous up there.

The next day was spent wandering around Geneva's Old Town. We saw the Jet d'eau, which is a giant stream of water that shoots into the air from the Lake. That was actually really awesome. We spent time just chilling by lake and watching the swans paddle through the clear blue water. We saw the Church where John Calvin preached, and layed in the grass in several beautiful parks. It was really an amazing day. We finished the day by dining on a delicious pot of cheese fondue. Mmmmm.

Pictures (Thanks Lori!)

Mmmm, Delicious Fondue!

Beautiful!