It’s been a while since I’ve been on here, so I have TWO trips to update you on! First, Brussels! Here’s a quick re-cap:
Day 1, Wednesday: This was a day consumed mainly by transportation. A group of nine of us all hopped in a service taxi together and were dropped of at Larnaca airport. We all booked tickets with Ryan-Air, so we were all on the same flight. When checking in and getting our boarding passes, I was a little nervous: I heard that they were kind of picky beforehand, but I kind of brushed it off. Well...they are picky. VERY picky. Many of us, including myself, almost had to check our baggage because “it was too big.” Thankfully, all but two of us were able to prove that our luggage met the requirements by shoving our bags into a cardboard box...after that little fiasco, we just went through security, and waited for our flight. The flight was pretty uneventful. Not the comfiest, but, uneventful... Our group landed in Belgium at around 5:30pm. It was SO cold, and it was raining when we landed. Brrrrrr! From the airport, we took a 45-minute bus ride into Brussels where we were dropped off at a metro station. This is where many of us parted ways (a lot of people were only flying to Brussels because it was cheap, and easy to catch connecting flights to other countries). So, four of us (Rose, Alexis, Mindy, and I), continued on our journey: we decided beforehand that we were going to partaking in couchsurfing together. For those of you who don’t know what couchsurfing is, it’s basically staying in a local resident’s house for whatever length of time you need to. We were lucky to find a host pretty last minute, that would take four of us. However, he did not live in Brussels: he lived in a village outside of the city called Overijse. So, this meant trying to find a way to get from Brussels to Overijse. It was a long process, let me tell you. In short, we ended up taking a metro and two buses (in addition to the other bus ride that we had from the airport to Brussels). It may not sound like much, but we ended up arriving at Overijse about 4 hours later than we had anticipated. AND, we were dropped off at the wrong bus stop. We called Konstantin, our host, when we arrived in town, and he was gracious enough to pick us up despite the fact that it was at the wrong bus stop. When we arrived at his house, he let us settle in--we stayed in a guest room with its own bathroom, and he had laid out chocolates on each of our pillows (how sweet!); it was better than a hostel, that’s for sure! After we had gotten ourselves settled, we headed back downstairs where Konstantin had a nice, warm, homemade meal waiting for us! It consisted of a pumpkin soup and waffles! (Did I mention that everything was homemade?!) It was delicious. After talking to Konstantin for a while, we headed back upstairs to go to sleep: we were exhausted! I forgot to mention: Konstantin didn’t really heat his house...he heated maybe two rooms with a heater...therefore, our room was not heated. And, like I told you, it was FREEZING in Brussels. Soooo, I ended up sleeping with four layers on top, three layers on bottom, and two pairs of socks on my feet. Did I mention that I had two down comforters on top of me as well? With all of that, I was content. Honestly, I did get a good night’s sleep for the most part...it was fabulous.
Day 2, Thursday: After getting a decent amount of sleep, we woke up, got ready for the day, and enjoyed a nice breakfast with Konstantin. He had already taken his two daughters to school, so once again, we did not see them! And Mindy had left early in the morning to head back to the airport because she was flying to Ireland on this day! So we were missing a few people, but breakfast was still good! For me, it consisted of bread and nutella along with cereal...filled with Nutella! See a pattern? haha. Mmmmm, Nutella. The night before, Konstantin informed us that he was planning on heading into Brussels that day, so he offered us a ride into the city. He had to get ready for the day first, so we waited in the dining room while he got ready. His dining room has a big glass wall/door to the outside, which shows a small little courtyard of sorts. This is where his cat, Bridget, stays! Well, Bridget was in the courtyard, so while we were waiting for Konstantin, we played with the cat through the glass and took some pictures of her. hehe. When Konstantin was ready to go, we headed into his van and made it into the city in a matter of 30 minutes (a lot faster than the 4 hours it took us the previous night!). Might I mention that everyone in Belgium is SUCH a courteous driver?! Seriously. EVERY time he needed to get into another lane, people would let him in right away. So different from the US! When we arrived in the city, we made our first stop at a flea market. There wasn’t much there though, and it was really cold, so after looking around for a little bit, we hopped back in the van and drove to the palace. We got out there and walked around a bit. Konstantin took us through a really cute part of Brussels, and then we stopped at...dun dun dun...the first shopping mall in the world! JUST my type of place. haha. There actually weren’t really any stores that I’d really shop at..mainly just chocolate shops and cafes, with a few high-end stores interspersed throughout. We walked around some more and got our very first chocolates in Belgium at Leonidas! It was really yummy. After that Konstantin had to leave us. The rest of the day, we just walked around and explored the city. This included seeing Manneken Pis, buying a “sugar waffle,” trying some fries (I tried mine with half ketchup, half andalouse sauce--a local favorite, or so I read online..), buying hot chocolate from Godiva (probably the best hot cocoa I’ve ever had, with the exception of my dad’s homemade hot cocoa of course!), running into Stuart and Kyle (a couple of the guys in GLS with us), and hopping back on the metro and then the bus back to Overijse. This time it didn’t take us 4 hours, so that was nice! When we got back in town, we stopped at the grocery store and picked up some groceries to prepare a Thanksgiving meal for Konstantin and his girls as a way to say “thank you.” (We bought him a box of Cyprus Delight, but we didn’t feel like this would suffice!) We were all missing our home-cooked Thanksgiving meals anyway, and we wanted to share a tradition from the U.S. with them--it was really fun! We made chicken and veggies, green beans, cranberries, VERY salty mashed potatoes, and we bought buns and a cherry tart as well. Although it wasn’t the same as what we’d normally have, we were pretty impressed with ourselves. Konstantin and the girls enjoyed it too (well, minus the potatoes...lol). After our meal, conversing for a bit, and doing the dishes, we headed upstairs to go to bed where I made a quick call home. Then, after I had my multiple layers on, it was lights out!
Day 3, Friday: This day started out like the day before: we all woke up and ate breakfast with Konstantin once we were ready for the day. Today, however, we took the bus into Brussels. We had to take an approximately ten minute walk to the bus stop, and boy-oh-boy, is Overijse a picturesque village or what! We hadn’t really seen it in the daylight yet, and I thought it was gorgeous! Today was another day of mainly walking around. However, this day was special because it was the first day of the Christmas market in Brussels! All kinds of vendors were setting up their booths, trying to sell their crafts and foods. I ended up buying a pair of gloves from a booth that sold knitted things because my fingers were really cold! While walking around, we got waffles (this time, I got mine with Nutella, and Alexis got one with strawberries, chocolate, and whipped cream). We also stopped at a place where Alexis got a monster sandwich filled with fries, meat, and globs of mayo. I’m wondering why this isn’t a staple in American menus yet!!! Amidst buying food and more hot cocoa, we just took our time strolling through the market and looking at the different types of items that the vendors had to offer: the market was really cute! Our walking also took us to the Magritte museum, one of the places that Rose had really desired to see while we were in Belgium. For those of you who don’t know him off of the top of your head, he was a surrealist painter. One of his famous works that you might recognize is a painting of a man whose face is replaced with/covered by a green apple. His works were very interesting to see! Finally, near the end of our time in the city (and when it was dark out), we went on the giant ferris wheel in the Christmas Market. It was SO gorgeous at night--the entire city and the market were completely lit up! After seeing all that there was to see, we headed back to Overijse where we were welcomed with another homemade meal: mussels (with potatoes thank goodness!). Alexis mentioned earlier this week that she’d like to try some because it’s a Belgian delicacy of sorts (and that if you’re invited to eat mussels with a Belgian, “you’re in”). So, the night before, Konstantin asked us if we’d like to try some. We replied that we’d be up for it, so he made a HUGE pot full of them. And yes, I did eat them. I actually ate all of the two plate-fulls that he gave me! Thankfully, the shells take up the majority of the room on the plate, but still...and for dessert, we had cake that one of his daughter’s made for her class (she told us that if you forgot something three times, you were required to bring in a cake to class...I wish we had had that type of rule at school! ha). It was actually quite delicious, considering that an 11-year-old made it. After dinner, we played a board game with Konstantin called “The Dance of the Witches” I think. It’s really simple, but quite tricky. However, I totally won (which Alexis did not appreciate. haha)! :) After playing and a little more conversing, we said our goodbyes and headed up to bed. Little did we know........
Day 4, Saturday: Waking up slightly before 5:00am, we were in for a treat (*insert sarcasm here). It turns out that the shuttle service that we had hired the day before to take us to the airport had decided to change our time...to 4:20am! Even though they had tried to contact us, Rose didn’t really pay attention to her phone after we had gotten the original text telling us what time we’d be picked up. It turns out they sent her a text with the time change sometime the night before, but she never saw it. Therefore, we missed it. Frantically, we woke up, quickly finished packing up, and tried to contact the shuttle service. After doing so, and finding out that they wouldn’t come for us, we had to resort to waking up Konstantin. He tried to help us find a taxi that could take us to the airport, but since time was running out, he ended up driving us the ~1 hour drive to the airport so we could catch our flight. We felt so bad! However, we got to the airport just in the nick of time, so we were quite relieved! After thanking Konstantin profusely and giving him a bit of gas money, we ran into the airport, got through passport control and security, and got in line to board the plane just in time. We all ended up sitting next to each other, and after an uncomfortable 3+ hour flight (noisy/cranky/screaming babies included), we landed in Larnaca. When boarding the plane, we noticed that some of our other friends from GLS were on the same flight, so we ended up hiring a cab and riding back to our apartment together. For the rest of the day, I just relaxed and did busy-work. Overall, I had a blast on this trip! It was freezing cold, but totally great! :)
Now for my next trip...this past weekend, I went to Turkey! Four of my friends and I traveled to Istanbul together, and we had a great time! Our group consisted of Rose, Stuart, Jade, Leah, and myself. Here’s a re-cap of our experience:
Day 1, Friday: After getting a half hour of sleep, I met the others outside at 3:30 am. We called a taxi from the street, and he took us to the border crossing at Ledra Street. Let me tell you, seeing Ledra Street when no one is on it is pretty crazy! It is NEVER empty when I go, so it was kind of weird to see it so still! We crossed the border, and then found another taxi to take us to the airport that we were flying out of on the North side. We arrived at the airport a lot earlier than we expected, so we just waited in a little cafe area until we could get our boarding passes. After waiting for a while, workers started to appear, so we went and got our boarding passes. After, we went through passport control and security one last time, and waited another hour until it was time to board our plane. Luckily, Jade, Stuart, and I got seated by an emergency exit (aka, I had lots of extra leg-room!) After an uneventful flight, we did all of the usual, necessary things when landing, and then hopped on a bus to the city. We got off at a stop that wasn’t near our hostel, so we decided to explore a while and then find a way to get to our final destination. Finally, we hopped in a cab that dropped us off near the Hagia Sophia, just a short walk to our hostel. After quite a bit of searching, we found our place, checked in, and then headed back out to walk around a bit. We started out by walking around the Hagia Sophia. When we were in the area, we came upon some locals who decided to show us a lovely surprise: puppies! They were SO cute, and I’d say that they were just born within the last week or so. After seeing them, we started walking in the area by the Topkapi Palace. It was gorgeous! We also saw another dog here, and Jade and Stuart pretty much fell in love with him. (They even named him “Dixon!”) haha. After spending some time around Dixon, we walked around some more and then made our way to the Blue Mosque. This is one of the most beautiful and impressive mosques that I’ve been in so far in my travels. Seriously, I can’t even comprehend how someone decorated that ENTIRE place. The intricacy of the details alone is enough to make your jaw drop. After walking around the mosque a bit, we decided to sit down for a little while and just continue to look around in awe for a little longer. However, this was somewhat of a poor decision: all of us were getting so tired, that we almost fell asleep! As soon as we realized this, we decided to walk back to our hostel where we occupied ourselves until 8:00pm--we collectively decided that we couldn’t go to bed any earlier because we’d wake up too early the next morning! So, once everyone was ready to sleep, I watched an episode of one of my new favorite shows, the Buried Life, on my iPod, and was ready for bed by 9:00! It was a long day, and felt super nice to get to sleep!
Day 2, Saturday: After getting around 12 hours of sleep, all of us were up and ready to start the day. We all got dressed, and then started to make our way to the Grand Bazaar. On our way, a few of us got a bite to eat for breakfast on the street (I got an apple pastry). After our quick pit-stops, we headed on in to the Grand Bazaar. THAT was awesome! I really like to go explore in bazaars and barter with the vendors. It’s super fun, and a really cool way to shop! I got quite a few things for a pretty good deal, but most of them were gifts, so no worries! haha. After spending about three hours in the bazaar, we decided that we needed a breather. So, we made our way back to the hostel where we dropped our stuff off in our room and took a short break. After our break, we made our way to yet another bazaar: the Spice Bazaar. It was filled with spices, and the aroma of the air was fantastic. I tried dried kiwi at one of the vendors. It was veryyyyy yummy, and I’m going to keep a lookout for some when I get home for sure. After we all made our purchases, we stopped for a few minutes to call one of Rose’s friends back home to sing “Happy Birthday.” I feel like we got quite a few looks, but it was really fun! We ate a early dinner, and then made our way back to the hostel where we took another break. When it was dark outside, we decided to make our way to the sea. We stopped at an “exercise park” we found along the way: it was a park filled completely with exercise-like equipment! We had quite a bit of fun playing around at the park, and then we continued down to the seaside where we just sat on a ledge near the water and chatted for a while. On our way back to the hostel, we walked in the direction of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia so we could see them lit up at night. It was quite funny because there were a bunch of seagulls circling the top of the Blue Mosque, but we couldn’t figure out what they were for the longest time (I thought they were bats at first!). On our walk back, we also made two new friends: a couple of dogs that we ended up naming Mikael and Ashley/Darla (there was a disagreement on the names..haha). They walked with us for a long time, at least fifteen minutes--almost all the way back to our hostel! They were really cute. :) When we got back, we just relaxed, got ready for bed, and then hit the hay! (But I didn’t do so until I had watched another episode of the Buried Life of course!)
Day 3, Sunday: This day was pretty uneventful, mainly because it was REALLY cold and kind of rainy. We checked out in the morning, and then walked to a big bridge that connects a couple parts of Istanbul. There were many fishermen scattered about on the bridge. It was quite interesting because they put multiple hooks on their lines! The rest of the day, we just walked around for a while, got lunch (where we stayed for over an hour because it was nice and warm inside), and walked back to see Dixon and the puppies (I got to hold one and its eyes weren’t even open yet! It was so cute!). When we walked back to the hostel, I watched an episode of the buried life while the others just read or listened to music. Our shuttle came and picked us up, and then took us to the airport (traffic was HORRIBLE because a major sporting event was going on!). We still got to the airport with plenty of time though, and we just ended up eating dinner and waiting to board the plane. I ended up watching the remaining episodes of the Buried Life that were on my iPod in between my time at the hostel that afternoon and the time that we landed back in Cyprus (about 5 total!). We got back around 10:30, and were back at our apartments by 11:00pm.
All in all, this was a great trip as well. We didn’t do much sightseeing, which I’m kind of happy of: it gives me a good reason to go back someday! I loved Istanbul--it’s a beautiful city, and the locals there are very nice. I hope I’ll make it back that way sometime in the future!
Well, that’s all I have to update you on I guess. Not much else has been going on here. I’ve just been getting ready for my few finals and for heading back home. Let me tell you...I’m getting SUPER pumped for Christmas! They constantly play Christmas music at the mall/grocery store, and Christmas decorations are popping up in a lot of places. I can’t wait to be home for the holidays!
I'm probably not going to post anything on here until after Christmas, but feel free to check back in a couple of weeks if you get the time: I'm going to probably post a reflection on my time in Cyprus, and I’ll try to figure out how to post pictures on here too for the people that aren’t able to see them on my Facebook page. Other than that, I guess I’ll just be back to updating my blog about travels until I head back to Europe in January! I can’t believe that a month from now I’ll be in Europe again! It's so crazy how FAST time flies! In case I don’t post anything else before Christmas, I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas! I hope your holidays are blessed, and that you get everything that you wished for this year!!!
12 days until I'm home!
:)
No comments:
Post a Comment